Modem scientific advancement has introduced another ground-breaking therapeutic invention for fighting a range of ailments including acne. This is widely known as phototherapy or light therapy. The core concept of this method is to expose the lesions under specific wavelengths of light for a certain time length. Laser, LEDs, fluorescent, and dichroic lamps, or other varieties of bright and full spectrum lights are generally used for this purpose. They actually work by killing the bacterial accumulation inside the skin pores, healing the inflammation, unclogging the pores and thereby clearing the skin surface of harmful microbial attack. This remedial technology is more popularly known as LHE or light and heat energy. The overall outcome of LHE treatment is also promising enough since maximum number of patients have reported 90% cure within the eighth treatment session which it takes merely four weeks to reach.
How LHE Works
Acne is generated due the abnormal clogging of the skin pores chiefly due to hormonal imbalance. This clogging works as a barrier against the discharged sebum or body oil by the oil glands embedded under the skin surface. Consequently they start accumulating inside the pore itself, unable to come out. In addition to this, the clogged pores are generally infected by microbes that develop a colony under the skin surface by proliferating themselves, inflame the area and thus the affected area appears as a lump which we call as Propionibacterium acnes.
The basic concept of LHE acne phototherapy is centered on the intuitive usage of both light and heat impulses on the lesions. The green component of the light penetrates the skin surface and induces an increase in the amount of porphyrins which in turn destroys all the bacterial growths. The red component on the other hand is responsible for healing up the inflammations, while the heat opens up the clogged pores to release the accumulated sebum.
The controlled parameters of three key factors, namely wavelength, temperature and photon concentration determine the reliability and efficacy of LHE treatment.
Wavelength: Even though it is a proven fact that porphyrin responds well with certain range of wavelengths of blue spectrum, it tends to absorb photons throughout the visible spectrum. Besides, in order to optimize the balance between the required penetration depth and the effectiveness of porphyrin activation in a phototherapy session, a higher range light spectrum is preferred which consists of red, green, and yellow lights.
Temperature: When heat is combined with light, together they can increase the heat inside the follicles and quickens the chemical reactions than what light alone could. This is how the rate of production of porphyrin is also boosted as a result of thermal induction. The importance of TRT or thermal relaxation time is crucial in this regard. TRT is the minimum time a human body needs to release 50% of the induced heat after a thermal exposure. This TRT balance is closely related with the pulse width of LHE treatment which should be kept at 35 ms.
Photon concentration: Since photon concentration is a key factor behind the success of LHE acne phototherapy, it is essential to minimize the scattering of photons after reaching the deeper layers of epidermis. In order to prevent this, a larger spot size is used, which means a wider coverage area used at the time of penetrating the light through the skin. This enhances the concentration of photons instead of scattering through the sides. This prevents loss of photon to a great extent.
The major benefits of phototherapy are:
• The time length for each sitting is surprisingly short. It takes around 10 minutes for each complete facial treatment session.
• With this technology, acne is healed much faster than any other treatment methods. The total medication time has been measured to be one third of the time it takes in other remedial measures.
• There is no risk of pain or harmful side effects have made it so popular that almost 50% of the dermatologists resort to this unique method of treatment.
Similar porphyrin activation is also induced by some components of sunlight and this is the reason why sunlight has been believed to be a good curative measure for acne plagued people. However, later it is found that UV factor of sunlight increases the nsk of skin cancer as well as signs of aging. And even artificial UV has failed to show any better outcome than LHE. Therefore if you are thinking of undergoing phototherapy to cure skin rashes then definitely and undoubtedly LHE, and certainly not sunlight, would be the most logical decision.
