Can you go in for BBL when on very lose dose accutane?

Question

I was considering BBL (broadband light therapy). My doctor currently has me on very lose dose accutane for oilyness. 10mg once a week. Could I still do BBL at this point. There are a lot of warnings around combining other therapies with accutane ... but this dose is about 1/70th of what a standard weekly accutane regimen would be.

Christopher W. Robb, MD, PhD · Answer

BBL while on Accutane is ok, at certain settings.   So please make sure you are with a skilled provider to ensure proper settings for safety.

Andrew Campbell, MD · Answer

Since BBL only targets the browns and reds in the skin and it doesn't cause any sort of injury to the epidermis that would need wound healing, it is safe to perform on patients that are on accutane.Andrew Campbell, MD.Quintessa

Thomas D. Griffin Jr., MD · Answer

You are correct in saying that for years the standard has been to not do any treatments during accutane therapy. The fear was that accutane prevented proper wound healing and therefore could lead to scarring. Recently there have been consensus journal articles that  look at the safety of fractionated laser therapies like halo and fraxel to treat acne scarring during accutane and have found no increase in side effect profile. Now, those are lasers that injure the skin. BBL does not injure the skin and there is no dramatic wound healing response that needs to occur after treatment. We use BBL during regular courses of accutane for post inflammatory redness as well as scarring routinely and have had no issues with it. Given your very very low dose, I would not see an issue with this treatment.

Can you go in for BBL when on very lose dose accutane?

Answers (3)