LED Light Therapy: The Good Rays for Your Skin

Dr. Furnas (00:12):
The surge in LED lights is obscuring night stars, and its bluer wavelengths disrupt our sleep. So what could LED light therapy possibly do? Welcome to Skintuition. I'm Heather Furnas.

Dr. Korman (00:28):
And I'm Josh Korman. As two plastic surgeons, we lay aside our scalpels and explore the nonsurgical world to bring you what's new, what's safe, and what to look for when you're ready to hit refresh.

Dr. Furnas (00:42):
So Josh, what are LED lights anyway?

Dr. Korman (00:46):
Yeah, LEDs are, that's one of those famous TLAs, three letter acronyms, but it stands for light emitting diodes in this case. And they're basically light sources that penetrate the skin through different wavelengths that are basically colors. And there's a variety of different colors for different treatments and different results that work sometimes.

Dr. Furnas (01:12):
Work sometimes. So what they can do reduce inflammation. Why would they want to reduce their inflammation?

Dr. Korman (01:21):
Well, inflammation is basically the body's response to something that's caused reaction. So acne would be one, rosacea, which is a tendency to get red, basically red outbreaks on the skin and eczema, which is kind of the scaly stuff that people get on their scalp and other places.

Dr. Furnas (01:42):
And another thing that LED lights can do is promote collagen production. And we think of collagen production for both sort of an anti-aging, helping fine lines and wrinkles as well as wound healing.

Dr. Korman (01:57):
But everything produces collagen. I mean, not everything like your car generator won't produce collagen, but that's how your body works is it's producing collagen. All these different products that people talk about is, oh, it helps with the production of collagen. So everything produces collagen. That's what the body's doing all the time. And collagen is a protein that helps to keep the skin looking firm and youthful. I think the idea is the right amount of inflammation can actually help heal and be anti-aging, but too much is not a good idea. And I think these lights, just like the colors of the rainbow spectrum, I think people have figured out that different lights, colors do different things.

Dr. Furnas (02:41):
So if I come to you and say, I want to improve my fine lines and wrinkles, are you going to recommend a LED light?

Dr. Korman (02:51):
Yeah, we'll call this the red light district because red light is most often used to treat wrinkles and fine lines. It's also used to treat inflammation and as we said before, promote collagen production. I think part of the question is how much, I mean red, how red and all that, but we can get to that in a minute. But red light is usually the color for wrinkles and fine lines

Dr. Furnas (03:15):
And blue light, interestingly, it's something very different.

Dr. Korman (03:19):
Yeah, blue light has been used for a long time for acne. And again, the difference between red light and blue light is actually the wavelength and blue light are more like the 420 nanometers and length and red light, more like the 560, 580. So it's these different wavelengths that have different effects on skin and blue light is good or is thought to kill acne causing bacteria and reduce oil production. That seems to respond best to the shorter wavelength as the 420 nanometers as opposed to the red light, which is more the 560.

Dr. Furnas (04:00):
And we mentioned in the intro that the bluer wavelengths disrupt our sleep and it actually interferes with the production of melatonin with that shorter wavelength that can actually penetrate our eyes.

Dr. Korman (04:13):
Is that why? I remember staying in a motel once where you could see the flashy neon light outside that was blue and I didn't really get a good night's sleep. I wonder whether that was because of that.

Dr. Furnas (04:24):
Well, that's neon, but it is a blue wavelength, so that's a really good

Dr. Korman (04:28):
It could have been the sound of the freeway in the background that could have had a, but blue is not all blue. And I think that's the point. It's like neon is a different gas and so therefore it's a different thing. So it's important to understand the difference between what's truly a wavelength and what's a gas.

Dr. Furnas (04:48):
Yeah. It's interesting actually that the blue light impacts this acne causing bacteria. The bacteria produces this protein and it absorbs the blue light, and then that chemical reaction actually kills the bacteria mean it was pretty cool. I could see it being done in an adventure type movie zapping all the bacteria.

Dr. Korman (05:16):
But it's also important to understand that the color that's absorbed is different than the color that's reflected.

Dr. Furnas (05:23):
That's true.

Dr. Korman (05:24):
Because like green plants, people always think because there's chlorophyll in green plants and people think, oh, is that the absorbed color or is it the reflected color? And really absorbs all the lights except for the green. And that's what you see. And so it's important to kind of figure out what's actually being absorbed and what's being reflected.

Dr. Furnas (05:45):
Just like you have the three primary colors of crayons or paint and you mix 'em all up and it's kind of muddy brown, but you put the three primary colors of light and it turns white, not black. Yeah, it is pretty, I mean, the whole wavelength is pretty cool and absorption. There's also amber light and green light, and we actually don't really hear as much about them. In our med spa we have red light and we have blue light, but amber and green are also helpful. Amber can reduce inflammation and promote healing, stimulate collagen and elastin, and the green light can improve skin tone and reduce hyperpigmentation. So actually the green and yellow or amber light can balance melanin. So sometimes that is given in treatment of acne to prevent the discoloration that can happen as acne scars are healing.

Dr. Korman (06:46):
So the thing I try to understand about acne, acne is one of the great afflictions of the human race, primarily obviously during teenage years, but especially with the cystic acne, which is the more severe acne. And in my practice, we treat acne scars all the time where the acne is gone, but the scars are there. And it is interesting that acne is such a problem. I realize that in general, the most important thing is to wash your face twice a day. That would be really helpful in teenagers. It's hard to convince them to do that, but we don't want to underestimate the impact that acne has on patients. And these are certain treatments that actually can help acne.

Dr. Furnas (07:29):
Yeah, these are not LED lights are not great for blackheads and whiteheads, but more pustule like acne and it really can be such a debilitating thing for patients to go through. We had talked about products that can be used and a previous podcast, Retin A and benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid, which can be used in multiple forms, but blue light is an addition. And so if you have acne, it's really helpful to look at the different modalities and use them together. When you have an LED light therapy session, you're not going to see a lot of benefit with just one session. And LED light sessions typically last about 15 to 20 minutes. Oftentimes they're added on to a treatment and they're done pretty frequently for acne about three to five times a week. And you can do this for several weeks.

Dr. Korman (08:32):
So why shouldn't I just get one for home? Because it seems like, do you really want to go and see to the doctor's office five days a week? That's a little excessive maybe.

Dr. Furnas (08:46):
Yeah, expensive inconvenient. The one thing about the home therapy is that you don't get the power that you do in a medical office, so it's not going to be as effective. But on the other hand, it can help with maintenance. The FDA approves home devices for safety reasons, but not for efficacy. So if you do use a LED at home, it's important to not go beyond what the directions instruct as far as amount of light exposure because the LED effect will disappear. It stops responding and excessive use can actually damage your eyes.

Dr. Korman (09:33):
Yeah, you have to really protect your eyes when you do this.

Dr. Furnas (09:36):
Yeah, you have safety goggles when you're having this applied. Neutrogena actually had a light therapy mask that they voluntarily pulled from the market because of this.

Dr. Korman (09:49):
So how much does it cost anyway? It seems like the LED therapy by itself, I mean in a treatment can cost like $150 to $300. So I guess if you're getting, I mean, how many do you need and how often do you need it? You can do the math at home device. I think the home devices cost a few hundred dollars, probably a big range, but they don't work as well. So I guess it's a little of a question of, I think one thing that I think is important to recognize that you can combine treatments, a lot of nonsurgical treatments work best when combined with other treatments like maybe with microneedling. Do you do that in your practice, Heather?

Dr. Furnas (10:30):
Yeah, we do a lot of that combination. So we do the microneedling and then do the LED light at the end, and sometimes we use it with our form of microdermabrasion, which is HydraFacial, and then with an LED light. And that's a really nice combination to enhance the results. So it depends on whether you're having a standalone, it's actually not all that common to see a standalone LED treatment. It is usually done as an add-on. And so if you're, you're looking for the treatment, as you said, Josh costs are $150 to $300, but in that combination it may be more cost effective.

Dr. Korman (11:12):
Yeah. So what about aftercare?

Dr. Furnas (11:15):
Well, there's really not a lot to do. There's no recovery time. You can resume your normal activities. You might be a little bit red, but that's the nice thing about it. It doesn't give a dramatic result after one treatment, but it's also very low risk. We talked about the eye damage and you don't want to do too much power, but it's a pretty safe treatment. So how long do results last?

Dr. Korman (11:45):
Well, I think the results are a question of based on how well does it work, probably like everything that you have to keep the maintenance to keep it going. And for it to last, in my experience using LED lights, there's a bunch of treatments first, and then probably every month or two, maybe every few months, you need to do another treatment to keep it up. I think the main thing is that life is still happening and we're still aging and we're still exposed to sun. So I think it really is a function of an acne still keeps happening in many patients. So it is really, I think a range of time and it's really based on the individual.

Dr. Furnas (12:30):
Yeah, I think you go through your multiple treatments per week session for however, Monday sessions, 10-20 for fine lines and wrinkles, 8 to 12 for acne. And then you can repeat that, not necessarily the same number of sessions every three months and just see how you respond. But it is something that you do need to keep up. And the conditions of at least rosacea, acne, eczema are things that are sort of ongoing fine lines and wrinkles. It can help, but there are more effective treatments with more dramatic changes. And so the red light is probably more of a compliment to something like microneedling or other treatments.

Dr. Korman (13:19):
Yeah, I guess one thing that's sometimes people get a little confused about is between these colored LED lights and more the intense pulse light or the broadband light. So how do you answer those questions to patients? What's the difference?

Dr. Furnas (13:37):
Well, the LED light has a narrower wavelength range, and so it's more, it targets these specific things that we've talked about. Whereas broadband light covers just like its name says, it's a broader spectrum of light. It includes visible light, infrared and ultraviolet light. And so it's more effective in treating a wider range of skin conditions such as pigmentation, irregularities, age spots, rosacea, redness, that people will complain about spider veins, things like that. So it's going to be more effective. There is some pain involved, and so it's a bigger treatment. And then IPL also uses a broader spectrum of light delivered in pulses, and it's also a treatment that covers a wider range of skin conditions like age spots and rosacea, very similar to broadband light.

Dr. Korman (14:40):
So I think that's a broad area. Light in itself is a huge thing, but I think a lot of the skin conditions that humans experience as a result of exposure to light and also from things that go on inside of them and light is a highly effective treatment if used correctly. So thank you for listening to this episode of Skintuition. Join us every two weeks as we tackle topics from hair loss to hormones and pimples to wrinkles, discovering new ways to feel better about ourselves.

Dr. Furnas (15:15):
Follow us, comment, ask questions, and keep in touch. Have an idea for a topic? We'd love to hear from you. The music by Diego Canales, production and Engineering by The Axis.