About Face:
The Blog of Arthur N. Falk, MD

Monday, August 10, 2009

Acne Cures

At the Center for Facial Plastic Surgery and Laser Skin Care, this time of year when summer is winding down and school is around the corner, we get a lot of inquires about alternative treatments for acne. It is too bad that people wait so long, because there really are no quick fixes for this condition. Rather it is a combination of the appropriate topical medications, some times oral medications, and a combination of office based exfoliation treatments along with laser therapy when indicated. It is easy to think lets just skip one element and go right to laser and light based therapy. Unfortunately, it just not that simple.

We do offer several complementary laser and light based treatments including SmoothBeamTM and Vbeam along with photodynamic therapy with topically applied aminolevulinic acid or Levulan. Photodynamic therapy uses blue spectrum light which has bactericidal properties, along with a special chemical sensitizer, Levulan that further enables the destruction of p-acne, the bacterial that is related to the infectious component of this condition. The combination of treatments provides the best chance for management and stabilization of this condition.

posted by Dr. Arthur Falk at 7:37 PM