I have seen a few people claim success in treating their scarring by combining skin needling (dermarolling/dermaneedling) with LED light therapy, so wondered if it is something that anyone else here has tried or experimented with?

There's several different types of LED light available, but the ones that seem to be relevant in this instance are red, infra-red and yellow.

As I understand it, using LEDs wont help with scarring by itself but when coupled with micro-needling, it can substantially improve the end result.

The idea is that you use a combination of red/infra-red and yellow light after you have micro-needled and continue to expose your treated areas to the LEDs for a period of about 5 minutes on a daily basis thereafter. It is meant to speed up the healing process and enhance your outcome.

I've done some research into this and heres what I've found:

(everything below I believe to be relevant but what I think is particularly interesting or relevant is highlighted in bold)

• Red light (620nm-700nm) penetrates tissue to a depth of about 10mm and helps treat things such as wounds, cuts, scars, infections, trigger and acupuncture points.
• Infra-red light (800nm-1000nm) penetrates to a depth of about 40mm or more which makes it more effective for treating organs and provide relief for ailments of bones, joints and deep muscle tissue.
• Yellow/amber light (570nm-620nm) reduces the appearance of redness, swelling, and inflammation. Yellow light stimulates toning and strengthening the muscles under the epidermis, bringing tightness back to skin, aiding the anti-aging process. It is also beneficial for treating Rosacea and burns such as sunburns. It helps with the production of red blood cells in the skin and is effective in treating abnormal pigmentation (hypo and hyper) and stimulating circulation. Very good for fibroblast stimulation.

Therapeutic effects of LED lights

• Increases circulation by increasing the formation of new capillaries. This speeds up the healing process by carrying more oxygen and more nutrients to the skin surface. New capillaries replace older, damaged ones and carry waste products away faster.
• Stimulates synthesis of adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) - an immediate energy source for muscle contraction and essential in the metabolism of all cellular processes and sustaining living systems
• Reduces scar tissue and stimulates wound healing
• Stimulates the production of collagen. Collagen is the most common protein found in the body and is essential to repair damaged tissue and to replace dead tissue. It is this substance that holds cells together and has a high degree of elasticity.
• Increases phagocytosis - the bodys natural process to scavenge dead and degenerated cells and is important to the infection control process required for healing
• Increases RNA/DNA synthesis - this stimulates cellular reproduction and facilitates accelerated replacement of damaged cells
• Stimulates fibroblastic activity - promoting repair of connective tissue and formation of collagen fibers
• Stimulates tissue granulation and connective tissue formation - an important process in the healing of wounds, ulcers and inflamed tissues

Primary source of information: https://www.elixa.com/light/healing.htm and [Link removed]
My conclusions/thoughts/questions:

• As I said earlier on, I don't get the overall impression that it is something that can treat scarring by itself, although curiously scars are mentioned among the benefits of red LED lights.
• When it says that it can reduce scar tissue - I am interested to know whether this means preventing fresh wounds from becoming scar tissue or reducing pre-existing scar tissue.

So, over to you. Any thoughts or past experiences to share?

Personally, I am planning on giving this a try. I am only now starting to micro-needle having never done so before so I wont be able to judge if using LEDs makes the world of difference or not, but I figure why not go all-out from the get-go and hopefully maximise what I can possibly get out of all this. Two success stories on this forum that I trust and have inspired me have advocated the use of LEDs and swear that they did serve to dramatically improve upon their results that they would otherwise have got from just micro-needling alone.

The only thing I am seeking assurances on are matters of safety regarding infra-red light. I need to do some further research as for one thing you don't want to shine infra-red light into your eyes and I'm wondering about other potential concerns considering how deep it can penetrate. You should definitely avoid the thyroid area, for example. Any new findings I will report in this thread.

On a final note - this is not me saying you should definitively do this and it does work. It is something that I have been made aware of and can understand the logic of how it could conceivably work. I still haven't concluded my own research but just wanted to put this out there as a means of hopefully speeding the whole process along, particularly if some of you guys have any past experiences or knowledge to impart. Thanks.