If you are a victim of acne vulgaris, I’m sure all you want to do is to get rid of it; you might really feel desperate and try anything just to get them off your face. You might have tried a lot of gels, creams, cleansers and some prescription acne medication that is available in the market, but all of them proved to be ineffective until you came to a point of wanting to try other things like dermabrasion or chemical peels.
However, you might want to try another option, called light therapy. It is a therapy that uses ultraviolet radiation in helping to heal blemishes and prevent the appearance of new ones.
Background
Light therapies have proven to be effective in treating acne vulgaris. The use of light therapy can remove the outer skin cells by causing a slight damage to them, thereby encouraging the faster healing of acne, though its primary use is to treat skin damage that is caused by the sun. More so, it is also a prescription therapy for the prevention of skin cancers. This type of therapy also causes the breakouts to be less severe due to its shrinking effect on the oil glands of the skin.
Blue-Light Therapy
Blue-Light therapy is capable of treating various forms of acne. This is, by far, the most famous treatment for acne. This type of therapy acts by using a blue light directed into the affected skin, which kills the bacteria that leads to acne, as well as the skin swelling. The previous versions of the blue-light method have ultraviolet radiation in it, which was later found to cause permanent skin damage and cancer. However, this shouldn’t concern you now because the newer treatments involve several sessions for a set period of time which is usually a month. More so, this therapy also has a temporary side effect like drying of the skin.
LHE Therapy
This is another type of light therapy. It uses the combination of pulsing light and heat in treating acne which kills it. More so, the combination of the two factors also leads to the shrinking of the sebaceous glands which therefore helps in reducing the amount of oil on the skin. Obviously, the secret behind the effectiveness of this treatment is the combination of heat and light.
ALA and Light Therapy
There are some cases where the use of 5-aminolevulinic acid or ALA is prescribed along with the light therapy. The process involves the application of the ALA to the skin, first. The purpose of this is to make the affected area more sensitive to the light. Thus, effectiveness will be increased once the light therapy will start. However, the real drawback for this treatment is that it makes the skin more sensitive to sunlight. With such sensitivity, you will be required to use hats, sun block and other protective gear for 48 hours after the treatment. This therapy does not use ultraviolet radiation.