If you’ve ever had a fractional laser treatment—those popular cosmetic procedures that smooth skin, reduce wrinkles, or fade scars—you might know the drill: after the treatment, your skin turns red. This redness, called erythema, is a normal part of the healing process. The laser creates tiny, controlled injuries to your skin to kickstart its repair system, and redness is your body’s way of sending blood and healing cells to those areas. But here’s the catch: this redness can stick around for days, even weeks, making you self-conscious and extending the time it takes to get back to your daily routine.
Doctors and researchers have been looking for ways to speed up this healing process and reduce post-laser redness. In 2009, two researchers—Dr. Alster and Dr. Wanitphakdeedecha—published a study in the journal Dermatologic Surgery that explored a promising solution: using light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a type of light therapy, to ease this redness. Their findings offer good news for anyone who wants to make their recovery from laser treatments faster and more comfortable.
What is LED Photomodulation?
First, let’s break down what this “light therapy” actually is. The term used in the study is “light-emitting diode photomodulation,” but you can think of it simply as using specific types of light (like red light) from LED devices to help the skin heal.
LEDs are the same kind of lights you might find in some household bulbs, but in medical settings, they’re tuned to emit particular wavelengths of light. Unlike harsh lasers that can damage skin, these LED lights are gentle and non-invasive—they don’t hurt, and they don’t break the skin’s surface. Instead, they penetrate softly into the skin, where they interact with cells to trigger healing processes.
How Does Red Light Therapy Help With Post-Laser Redness?
So, how exactly does shining red light on your skin reduce that post-laser redness? Let’s start with why the redness happens in the first place. After a fractional laser treatment, your skin’s blood vessels expand to bring more blood (and healing nutrients) to the treated area. This expansion is what makes your skin look red. At the same time, your body releases chemicals that cause inflammation, which also contributes to the red, sometimes swollen look.
Dr. Alster and Dr. Wanitphakdeedecha’s research suggests that LED photomodulation works by targeting both of these issues. The red light from the LEDs seems to calm down the inflammation: it helps reduce the release of those pro-inflammatory chemicals, which in turn eases swelling and redness. Additionally, the light may help constrict (narrow) the expanded blood vessels, making the redness less noticeable.
Think of it like this: if your skin is like a noisy, overactive construction site after laser treatment, the red light acts as a calm supervisor, telling the workers (your body’s healing cells) to slow down the chaos (inflammation) and get back to organized repair.
The Study: Proof That It Works
To test whether LED photomodulation really helps, the researchers looked at real patients who had undergone fractional laser treatments. They wanted to see if using LED light therapy after the laser procedure would make the redness fade faster or be less severe.
In their study, patients received the fractional laser treatment as usual. Then, instead of just waiting for the redness to go away on its own, some patients were treated with LED photomodulation. The researchers compared how the redness looked and how long it lasted in these patients versus those who didn’t get the light therapy.
What they found was clear: the patients who had LED photomodulation had less redness, and it faded more quickly. This wasn’t a small difference—it was enough to make a real impact on how comfortable patients felt during their recovery.
Why This Matters for Anyone Getting Laser Treatments
You might be wondering: why does this study matter for me? If you’re considering a fractional laser treatment, or if you’ve had one before, the redness can be one of the most frustrating parts. It can make you feel like you need to hide your face, avoid social events, or skip work—all while waiting for your skin to heal.
LED photomodulation offers a simple, non-invasive way to make that recovery time shorter and more bearable. It doesn’t require any harsh chemicals or additional lasers, so it’s gentle on skin that’s already sensitive from the treatment. Plus, it’s easy to add to your post-laser care routine—your dermatologist can do it right in their office, or in some cases, you might even use a safe at-home device (though always check with your doctor first).
Conclusion
Redness after fractional laser treatments is common, but it doesn’t have to be a long, uncomfortable part of your recovery. Thanks to research like that by Alster and Wanitphakdeedecha, we know that LED photomodulation—using red light therapy—can effectively reduce this redness and speed up healing.
For anyone looking to get the benefits of laser treatments without the long wait for redness to fade, this is great news. It’s a simple, safe tool that can make a big difference in how you feel during your skin’s healing journey.
Alster TS, Wanitphakdeedecha R. Improvement of postfractional laser erythema with light-emitting diode photomodulation. Dermatol Surg. 2009 May;35(5):813-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-4725.2009.01137.x. Epub 2009 Apr 6. PMID: 19397672.
