Cosmetic Benefits and Post-Treatment

Dr. Joel L. Cohen:
Over the years, we've seen many articles on the cosmetic benefits of photodynamic therapy using different formulations of photodynamic therapy and different light sources. So we know that red light and blue light illuminate PDT agents, but we also know that IPL and BBL as well as pulsed dye laser can illuminate as well. So for people who have cosmetic goals, there is data out there that they can see improvement in skin luminosity and skin roughness and even some fine lines. But we can enhance this by incorporating IPL or BBL into the illumination or pulsed dye laser. So it's not uncommon where somebody may have a hypertrophic lesion or a hyperkeratotic lesion that you really just want to have some extra attention to. So I will incorporate the pulsed dye laser over that area and do a few pulses at the same day that they're actually doing the red light illumination as well, and just to make sure that we really hit that area kind of hard and that works out for people.

If people have a biopsy proven squamous cell carcinoma in situ that's really thin, that doesn't have adnexal extension, I'll usually do that approach as well. It's important that patients really just understand that it's going to be two and a half days indoors away from any skylight or outdoor light, certainly not driving or doing anything unexpected. I've had patients who are home during a snowstorm and they see the walkway accumulating with snow and they decide to shovel the walkway for their family and then call the office within an hour or two and complain of redness and swelling and burning. So it's important they realize that any time of day, even during a snowstorm, there is still light exposure when it's light outside. So they need to be careful and avoid that.

Many patients will just use a gentle cleanser, something like Cetaphil and a moisturizer, and those things that have fragrance-free and really sensitive skin formulations that are non-comedogenic, work really well. If somebody's in a rush and they want to try to expedite the improvement that they see, I've definitely had patients incorporate things like Revision CMT, which is a post-procedure cream. I do have a disclosure. I'm the chair of Revision Scientific Board, and this specific product was designed as a neurocosmetic. It was designed to decrease some of the pain receptors and decrease some of the heat receptors post-procedure. And it may actually seem to accelerate the healing process. And I've certainly seen people apply things like exosomes after a procedure, and I have friends that use things like BENEV's Exosome Formulation to try to expedite the healing process as well.