The following `Buyer’s Guide for LED Therapy‘ shows that LED therapy is gaining popularity with aestheticians. This popularity is wide ranging. Some of these therapies look promising for adjunctive rosacea treatment. I would expect that more and more rosacea sufferers will be seeing LED machines when they visit aestheticians. Some interesting quotes;
OmniLux, which was the first LED to obtain FDA approval, was originally developed and optimized for PDT in the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers by scientists in European cancer research hospitals. It was designed to deliver the correct wavelength, intensity and dose so that it specifically targets the activation spectra of the target chromophores. It is now widely accepted that the correct wavelength intensity and dose are essential for effective photodynamic therapy.
According to Glen Calderhead, Ph.D., president of SG Biomedical in Japan, and research coordinator at the Japan Phototherapy Laboratory in Tokyo, “For skin rejuvenation, the continuous wave 633 nm light from the OmniLux Revive head penetrates far enough into the target dermis to involve not only the superficial and fine reticular dermis, cell population, blood vessels and lymphatics, but also right down into the mid and even deep reticular dermis.”
….
The LumiPhase-R from OPUSMED (Montreal, Canada) targets fibroblast in the dermis. “By using an in vitro model called human reconstructive skin, we were able to prove that treatment with the LumiPhase-R reduces not only collagenase (MMP-1), as stated in early reports, but also gelatinase (MMP-2),” said Daniel Barolet, M.D., dermatologist and chief scientific officer at OPUSMED. “You have an effect on collagen, as well as on elastin and other components of the dermis.”
…
The Revitalight Skincare System from Skincare Systems, Inc. (Chicago) “appears to be more powerful than other LED systems and we see results faster,” said Mark Lees, Ph.D., a skincare specialist and product developer from Pensacola, Fla., who has been performing LED treatments for about four years now. Patients schedule six treatments at two week intervals. “I typically use the red light setting for aging skin,” Dr. Lees said. “The main thing I’ve observed with LED in general is a big difference in diffuse redness. Rosacea patients, for example, do very well with LED because it really helps with the redness. I’ve seen a difference with the Revitalight after only one treatment.”
…
There is really good science behind LED. Studies have shown that LED technology inhibits enzymes that breakdown collagen; therefore, you have less collagen degradation. You also have all kinds of stimulation of certain biochemical pathways that appear to have a clinical effect. Patients are definitely coming back. We’ve had the Revitalight for almost one year now. Not one patient has asked for a refund.”
…
Gordon Sasaki, M.D., a plastic surgeon in private practice in Pasadena, Calif., added that the GentleWaves “represents one of the new, fully integrated LED systems, which is unusual.” The device primarily dwells on the 590 nm dominant yellow light to nonthermally photomodulate up or down the mitochondrial and genetic activity of living cells to reverse many of the common patterns of photoaged skin. “What attracted me to GentleWaves is that it is a lock-and-key device, where the science has preceded the marketing.” Dr. Sasaki said. “There are a good number of in vitro studies involving human fibroblast that demonstrate that GentleWaves technology causes an increase in the cell’s ability to produce more collagen and elastin. At the same time, there is a reduction in the production of collagenase. This degrades many of the structural proteins such as collagen I and elastin.”