What is LED Light Therapy for Skin Care?

LED light therapy is a skin treatment that doesn't use ultraviolet light. Instead, it uses skin-safe, low-level light in different wavelengths and colors. These include:

• Amber
• Blue
• Red
• Green

Sometimes different LED lights are combined with a photosensitive drug called 5-aminolevulinic acid. This medicine is applied to the skin and used in combination with the LED light. While this might make your skin more sensitive to light, it helps the treatment -- also called photodynamic therapy -- work better.

While LED light therapy is typically done in a dermatologist’s office, several LED light facial devices are available for at-home use. These include:

• Light facial masks
• Light wands for targeted spot treatment
• Ultrasonic devices
• Mesotherapy electroporation devices
• Professional LED light machines

These lights are used for lots of different skin conditions. Receiving light therapy from your doctor is a promising skin treatment, but at-home devices require more research. It’s not entirely clear, for example, whether home light masks work or have lasting effects.