Photofacial or IPL Photofacial are terms used for skin treatments that use light therapy to treat acne and other skin conditions.

Photofacial therapy is a light based treatment and IPL Photofacial therapy a laser based treatment.

Photofacial therapy is generally administered by light treatment in the form or narrow spectrum range UV light therapy lamps in the form of UV flourescent tubes or LED’s (light emitting diodes) lamps. The UV light is in a safe range so as not to cause damage to the skin but targets and kills the bacteria that causes acne. This type of treatment used to be only available through dermatology clinics but recent advances in technology have made available photofacial light therapy lamps that are suitable for home based use.

They are normally a blue light therapy type of lamp and in 2002 and the FDA approved them for use on mild to moderate acne conditions. The major benefit of these lamps is the they are very affordable and easy to use, painless and normally only requiring 15 minutes of use a day to produce satisfactory results. Besides treating acne they are also used to produce plumper looking skin by increasing collagen, treating brown spots and broken capillaries.

IPL (intense pulsed light) photofacial treatment can only be practiced by a clinic or dermatologist. Normally a hand held device is used and dispense intense pulsed light at very high energy and even though they may have cooling devices it can be painful. This treatment is also used to treat acne, brown spots and broken capillaries, spider veins and redness but cannot be done at home and is far more expensive. If you suffer from brown spots and broken capillaries it is probably a better choice.

Both photofaicial and IPL photofacial work and provide good results but a lot depends on your skin condition and it maybe best to see a dermatologist first to get an evaluation. More information….

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