FDA-Approved Light Therapy Device for Acne

How It Works and What It Costs

ClearLight treatments are given in 15-20 minute sessions twice a week for four to eight weeks. Patients simply lie on a bed in the dermatologist’s office for 15 minutes while the ClearLight device is directed at their acne-affected skin—most often the face, neck, back, or chest. Each treatment costs about $50, so the total cost of treatment is about $200.

Not everyone in studies of the ClearLight system responded to treatment, though. According to the FDA’s Neil Ogden, “about half of the patients who finished all eight treatments saw at least a 50% decrease in the number of pimples.”

A Possible Alternative to Medications

Medications to treat acne range from topical ointments to antibiotics, and in very severe cases, the drug Accutane. But drugs don’t work for everyone and many have unwanted side effects. An extreme example is Accutane, which causes severe birth defects in children born to women taking the drug. (For this reason the women taking the drug are required to use highly reliable contraception.) In addition, while antibiotics are a mainstay in acne treatment, many of the bacteria that cause acne are resistant to antibiotics.

The ClearLight system offers people with moderate inflammatory acne a non-drug option that so far has been shown to be painless and without severe side effects. No studies to date have compared ClearLight with conventional treatments, but in one uncontrolled study of 415nm acne treatment 50% of patients were “highly satisfied” with treatment.

Not for All Acne Sufferers

Because the ClearLight system works by primarily killing the bacteria that cause moderate inflammatory acne, it may not work well for severe acne or mild cases of pimples, which are not driven entirely by bacteria.