You may be looking for a new treatment to try for your acne. Laser and light therapies are fairly new in dermatology. They offer a different method to get rid of acne on a longer-term basis. They do not work for everyone, but some people have seen excellent results.

Lasers can be used to treat many different skin conditions, and acne is one of them. The acne lesions can be targeted specifically by the laser if it is controlled by an experienced doctor. The acne will become softer as the laser is applied to it.

When these infrared lasers are used, their energy heats up your skin. The top layers will absorb the energy into your sebaceous glands. This will happen only in the areas of acne lesions on your face that the doctor has marked. The sebaceous glands will be affected in such a way that your acne lesions will be minimized or even eliminated.

It will take some time for the treatment to work. You might see some difference after just one treatment, but to clear up your skin, you need more. It usually takes a couple of treatments per week, and you keep going until your face is pretty much acne-free.

You may be a little red for an hour or so, but there will be no wound or healing required. You can go about your daily business as usual. The only time you will be uncomfortable during the procedure is when the laser beam strikes your face. Even then, it will just feel like you are being popped by a rubber band. You will wear goggles for the safety of your eyes, and your procedure should only last 15 minutes or so.

If your acne is severe, you can be given the option of using a medication called aminolevulinic acid HCI. It is called ALA for short. It is used in combination with pulsed-light therapy.

The ALA has the effect of increasing the depth to which the pulsed light will go. This is important to you if you have deep acne lesions. The ALA will be put on your face about 15 minutes before your pulsed-light therapy. This gives it a chance to work into your skin so that it can be effective.

The way pulsed-light therapy works is that it makes porphyrins in the skin cells become active. These are chemicals produced by Propionibacterium Acnes. The interesting thing about these substances is that the light can cause them to react to the P. Acnes and destroy it.

You will find that you feel no discomfort as a result of pulsed-light therapy. It is safe, too, and only affects the areas where you have troublesome acne. The standard course of treatment is four 15-minute treatments, which you take over the first two weeks. After that, only you and your doctor can decide how much more treatment you might need.

You can find great relief through these methods. If they work for you, it will be a long time before you need further treatment for acne. In fact, you may never need another treatment at all. You have to be aware that not everyone has the same results, but if it works for you, you may be able to tame your acne after all.