Inflammatory acne occurs when a hair follicle gets blocked with oil. It is a more painful and serious form of acne and not as common as non-inflammatory acne. Inflammatory acne has greater risk of developing into cyst and nodules and can leave scars on the skin.
It can occur anywhere in a person’s body when a bacterium invades the pores that are blocked, resulting in reddened and swollen lesion. There are various types of inflammatory acne like Papules with closed lesion like a whitehead. The other form is known as pustule in which nodules erupt under the skin, resulting in a painful and large bump on the skin.
Benefit of Laser Treatment for Inflammatory Acne
Traditional medical treatment for inflammatory acne includes a variety of oral and topical medications. These treatments are effective to some extent but they have certain drawbacks and potential side effects like excessive dryness or irritation to the sensitive skin.
Moreover when the acne occurs on your backs and chest, it becomes difficult to treat them topically due to their large surface area. Treating acne with pulsed light, particularly inflammatory acne, can provide better aesthetic results, without leaving side effects that are commonly associated with oral and topical acne medications. Laser treatment can also treat the scars that most often result from the outbreaks of acne successfully with fractional laser resurfacing.
How Laser Treatment for Inflammatory Acne Works
Laser treatment for inflammatory acne targets and destroys the skin bacterium that causes acne in order to prevent future breakouts on your back, chest and face.
The pulsed light technology uses the right amount of light and targets the spot, taking into consideration the size of the acne. It also uses advance cooling technology to protect the skin of the patient.
Laser Treatments for Inflammatory Acne
The use of laser light devices has become increasingly popular in the recent years because of the minimal side effects, overall ease of the treatment and clinical efficacy. Today, various types of laser devices are used for treating acne like phosphate laser (KTP), potassium titany, 595-nm and 585 pulsed die laser and 1450-nm diode laser, intense pulsed light sources, radiofrequency devices, low intensity light treatment, and photodynamic therapy.
The devices are used to target the increased activity of sebaceous gland and the inflammatory response. The light that is delivered is absorbed by the skin and destroys bacteria that leads to inflammatory acne and also inhibit the breakouts of acne in future. The laser devices are also used to treat acne scarring. The pulses of laser light are used to set the scar tissues and encourage the growth of healthy new tissues without causing much pain. The process requires minimal healing time and risk of infection is rare.
Expected Result
As laser treatment for inflammatory acne is non-ablative in nature, these treatments have rare chance of having complications. Swelling and redness may persist for 24 hours. KTP and pulsed dye laser have the risk of bruising, especially when anticoagulant is used, but they usually get resolved within 10 days. But patient must avoid sun exposure before and after the procedure to avoid hyper pigmentation, especially those patients with darker pigmentation.