Photodynamic Therapy Q&A
75%
WORTH IT RATING
"Worth It Rating" shows the % of consumer reviewers
that stated the procedure was "Worth It" or not.
See more RealSelf Worth It Ratings
or Add Your Review
View Before and Afters
Average Photodynamic Therapy Cost: $666
Learn about Photodynamic Therapy
91 people and 55 doctors are talking about Photodynamic Therapy
Get Free Email Updates
I Am Booked for PDT in 2 Months Time, Whats the Average Incubation Time for Levulan with Blu Light?
asked 4 months ago by robbie6
Latest answer by Lawrence A. Osman, MD
Question viewed 126 times
Tags: redness, duration
I am female, fair skinned, prone to broken veins & have uneven redness in my skin tone, never had acne or any other complaints, I've tried laser genesis and IPL for the redness and now PDT is recommended with 1 hour incubation of Levulan before blu light treatment. I am wondering whether this may help, what is the average incubation time, they orginally said 3 hours. I was concerned about such a long incubation time as my skin is very reactive. Is 1 hour long enough to show good results?
2 answers to I Am Booked for PDT in 2 Months Time, Whats the Average Incubation Time for Levulan with Blu Light?
+1
1 hour incubation for PDT often sufficient
I find that a one hour incubation time after appropriately preparing the skin is often sufficient. Three hours is quite long, and the reaction with activation will be fairly intense. It sounds like your practitioner feels your redness is from pre-cancerous lesions since they are recommending activation using the blue light. If the redness is from dilated veins as well, you may see better results if you activate it using the IPL.
Lawrence A. Osman, MD
Woodland Hills Dermatologic Surgeon
Woodland Hills Dermatologic Surgeon
+1
Pulsed dye laser may be better for redness
Based on your description you may want to consider treatment with a pulsed dye laser. I feel it is superior to both laser genesis and IPL for reduction of facial rednes and veins. I do not routinely use PDT for facial redness - that seems like overkill to me. PDT is best used for acne and actinic keratosis (pre-cancerous skin growths). Treatment with the pulsed dye laser usually has limited downtime and risk. PDT causes extreme light sensitivity for 24-48 hours and may have...
more
