Acne light therapy is a relatively modern method of acne treatment. Since it is a new kind of treatment, there are not many details available about this therapy. So this article is targeted at presenting all the important and relevant facts about acne light therapy in order to facilitate people who have decided to use it to cure their acne or for people just considering it.
Acne Light Therapy - What Is It And Is It For You?
Acne light therapy uses blue light and rarely a combination of both blue and red light for treatment of the acne.
What Is The Effect Of This Light Therapy On Acne?
- Acne Vulgaris is caused by a specific type of bacteria called as P.acnes. These bacteria are responsible for the redness and inflammation of the acne lesions. – The acne light therapy has an effect of stimulating the porphyrins within the bacterial cells, and thus kills acne producing bacteria. – But the blue light used in the light therapy can only affect Acne Vulgaris and has little or no benefit in the treatment of whiteheads (miliary eruptions) or blackheads. – The red light used in light therapy, helps to reduce redness and inflammation of the acne and reduces the pain and discomfort associated with it.
How is it administered or used?
· This is a very easy and expedient method of treatment, which can be done at home.
· A simple device that can be placed on a table-top is used to administer the light rays.
· Nowadays hand held devices are also available.
· A table-top device will make the process shorter and merely requires 10-15 minutes of time. The person needs to sit quite close to the device to receive the light rays in an adequate manner.
· Hand held devices will take much more time, and requires the person to hold the device close to the face and over the various areas of acne lesions for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time. This process needs to be repeated twice a day.
What are the precautions to be used during therapy?
Since the blue light used in light therapy can damage the retina of the eyes; it is necessary to protect the eyes with goggles.
What are the side effects of this therapy?
Since lasers and light therapies used for acne treatment are relatively new; nothing is known much about their long term side effects or risk to the body. But the common side-effects being noted as of now are slight irritation and redness of the skin. This side-effect is not observed in all users; only people who have sensitive skin may report such effects.
Final Verdict about this therapy
The final verdict is that light therapy cannot be recommended as an excellent mode of treatment of acne. The usual prices of the devices are somewhere between $ 150 and $ 350; making it quite costly and heavy on the pocket. In addition to this, lot of time needs to be spent daily, on using these devices. The final benefit on the acne is also limited to the red and inflamed pimples, and does not benefit whiteheads or blackheads.
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