With the influx in the use of personal care LED/laser devices, most commonly “red light therapy,” with thousands of products freely accessible on online marketplaces, one has to be very careful how they use these devices!
A single product search of “light therapy” on Amazon yields over 4,000 results. These are freely accessible therapeutic devices, with little professional insight on proper usage.
Here’s the catch, when used correctly, light therapies provide incredible outcomes. However, when used incorrectly, the consequences are severe. So, before you grab that red light therapy device from Amazon, eBay, or your aunt’s best friend’s beauty store, there’re things you need to understand!
Here’s just one crucial one! Acne lesions are not acne scars, and if you don’t know the difference, you could be in trouble. Check out this YouTube video we made that clearly explains this!
The bottom is, red light works on biological tissue by stimulating cell proliferation, not reducing it.
When red light hits your tissue, it makes your cells grow faster, and produce more of whatever those cells produce. This is a problem because acne is caused by overstimulation of cell growth in the part of the skin that forms the root of hair. If you use red light on a growing tissue, you’re just making it grow faster!
So how does red light work? It’s only because of the bacteria in certain “FRESH” acne pimples! These bacteria produce compounds called porphyrins, which are light-activatable and become toxic to surrounding tissue when exposed to red light. So only when red light is exposed to a pimple with these bacteria, the porphyrins will make it work.
But here’s the kicker: acne scars are very different from acne lesions. Scars form as complications of acne lesions and are long-term textural alterations caused by the accumulation of collagen. They don’t have bacteria; they’re dry and filled with collagen, sometimes even keloids.
So, without bacteria, red light on a scar only leads to more collagen synthesis, worsening the condition and possibly causing permanent scarring. This is why you should never use red light therapy on acne scars.
To treat acne scars, you need laser resurfacing, a procedure very different from what simple red light devices do.
Hence, understanding the difference between an acne lesions (pimple) and acne scars, or other non-inflammatory acne lesion, is crucial for effective treatment and avoiding dangerous side effects.
Reach out if you have any questions. We are happy to help!
Cheers!