Photodynamic therapy

Photodynamic therapy is one of the new and exciting things in dermatology in the last 10 years. As is often the case the Europeans are far ahead of us in this modality because they get drugs approved easier and cheaper than we do, but we've are from their experience, so in a sense it's an advantage if there is one. The way it works is this: as it pertains first to acne, certain wavelengths of light that kill the bacteria responsible for causing much of the problems in the skin that lead to pimples. So it's a simple thing to shine the intense blue light on your skin and killed the acne bacteria. That's not the whole problem because acne is not in essence just a bacterial infection. The oil glands or addressed by the intense LED lights which all are in the near infrared spectrum in the oil glands are altered in such a way that they are made less active. Fortunately though we have a chemical called aminolevulinic acid which can be applied to the skin, and it is selectively absorbed into the oil glands. Once it's absorbed, we shine the lights on, and because so much of the chemical is concentrated in the oil glands, the chemical, when it changes after exposure to light, the oil glands to some degree self-destruct and become less active. Benson Dermatology - Ponchatoula, LA Louisiana

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