I am also in the process of getting photodynamic therapy. I have had two treatments so far. The 2nd I paired with IPL. My skin started looking really nice after the first one, but the second one really made me break out badly. My skin is probably the worse it's been at this point. I have my third one on Tuesday.

I have a little log of my experience if you wanted to read more. http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php/topic/308146-my-photodynamic-therapy-log/page__fromsearch__1

Wondering how your skin is looking so far? How bad is your acne? I would say mine is on the lighter side of light-moderate but it is persistent as fuck!

Let me know how its going!

I've had three PDTs done in rather rapid succession and my acne has not lessened one bit. The oiliness was not affected, as well.

The first time I was told to expect a lot of breakouts as my skin purged. I had a light microderm before the first session and a short IPL session afterward. Afterwards I developed some whiteheads but not many. I DID develop a full blown zit that caused me to scar. (Yet another scar. Yay.) I thought my oiliness had lessened -- my skin probably just thought, What the...?! -- but became just as oily as it was before.

With the second treatment, the doctor performed a light Fraxel, the PDT, a short IPL treatment, and sent me on my way. The Fraxel caused MANY more whiteheads to develop. My skin went back to its "normal, happy," (haha) oil-pumping ways.

While flying high on those fantastic pharmaceuticals during my third treatment, I asked the doctor did she think I was going to be one of those "lucky ones" who would need these treatments on a regular basis. She didn't answer me at first, but at my follow up I was told yes. See, I was told I'd probably need just one treatment to see results, then at my second treatment, I was told it would probably be three. Btw, at my third treatment I received the Fraxel, the PDT with red AND blue light this time (what was I, being pulled over by the cops?! ), and the IPL treatment.

Personally, I didn't receive the results I was expecting even though I didn't have my expectations sky high. I feel pleased in that PDTs are supposed to help with sun damage and any precancerous lesions (although I'm pretty good at protecting myself from too much sun on my face). The biggest change I witnessed was the diminishing of the fine crow's feet I felt I had. That's always a good thing.

my experience with PDT has been totally different than anything on this sight. Ive had 3 treatments, and will have my forth this Friday. I go to the doctor in the morning, they apply the levulan, then I go home for 5 hours. I go back to the doctor and they put me under the red light for 25 minutes. Myface was bright red, burned, and had burnt brown dried skin flaking off. It looked like I had played with a lighter. the first treatment my face took the entire 2 weeks to heal, and the second and third treatments were much faster. my skin looks better, and i have not had one breakout or any zits appear. lots of blackheads because its pushing out all the oil from inside. but the pores are tiny tiny now, all brown spots are completely gone, and my sebasceous hyperplasia (i call them permanent zits) are almost gone. i think this is the best treatment ever. the first one was a doozy, but since then, completely bearable.

m

my experience with PDT has been totally different than anything on this sight. Ive had 3 treatments, and will have my forth this Friday. I go to the doctor in the morning, they apply the levulan, then I go home for 5 hours. I go back to the doctor and they put me under the red light for 25 minutes. Myface was bright red, burned, and had burnt brown dried skin flaking off. It looked like I had played with a lighter. the first treatment my face took the entire 2 weeks to heal, and the second and third treatments were much faster. my skin looks better, and i have not had one breakout or any zits appear. lots of blackheads because its pushing out all the oil from inside. but the pores are tiny tiny now, all brown spots are completely gone, and my sebasceous hyperplasia (i call them permanent zits) are almost gone. i think this is the best treatment ever. the first one was a doozy, but since then, completely bearable.

m

 

wow this is great news! the place i go to now is doing acleara on me but they suggested getting this done if i feel the acleara doesnt work well enough. anyway they told me that i would peel and be red for about 2 weeks and that it would shrink pores and help to slow down oil production and they said they prefer to do that over prescribing accutane because in their minds this is as good as accutane. with the results you are having i might have to give this a thought if i keep breaking out. they charge $500 a session and said they would probably only do a few sessions on me. so do you have to go back again or was this the last treatment?

Karen Howz-Have you gotten this treatment done yet?

Karen Howz-Have you gotten this treatment done yet?

 

i have not. i decided not to get it done because i started using benzaclin twice a day again and its doing a pretty good job right now. i also found out i had a wheat allergy so i stopped eating wheat and cut back on sugar and dairy. if i start to have bad breakouts again i would do it but only on the outer part of my face since that is where i breakout. did you get it done?

Karen Howz-Have you gotten this treatment done yet?

 

i have not. i decided not to get it done because i started using benzaclin twice a day again and its doing a pretty good job right now. i also found out i had a wheat allergy so i stopped eating wheat and cut back on sugar and dairy. if i start to have bad breakouts again i would do it but only on the outer part of my face since that is where i breakout. did you get it done?

 

Ohh okay I see. Hopefully you keep having good results with what you are doing now. I have had the PDT done, just one out of the 2 or 3 I am going to have done. It dried up my active breakouts at the time, still breaking out a bit though. But I was told you don't see much of a difference with just one treatment .

thanks!! so when are you doing your next PDT? were you really red afterwards and did your face peel? keep me updated on how your progress goes. i hope that you only need 1 more of them. i hear they do work great though!

thanks!! so when are you doing your next PDT? were you really red afterwards and did your face peel? keep me updated on how your progress goes. i hope that you only need 1 more of them. i hear they do work great though!

 

My next PDT is on June 11th so its coming up soon! My face was very red for a few days, it looked like a really bad sunburn. But I really didn't peel at all, just a tiny bit. I was told that it would help w/ the red marks left from acne also but I don't really see much of a difference w/ those from my first treatment. I had to stay indoors for 48hrs w/ sunscreen on & had to put an ice pack on my face every half hour to reduce swelling. So yeah I hope these treatments are worth it because they are kind of expensive & they are certainly not fun at all.haha. But I will come back on here w/ an update sometime after my second treatment.

well thats good that your pdt is next week. i bet you cant wait to get it over with and it must be tough staying out of the sun too. that is nice that you didnt peel very much though i bet you were glad about that. did you take off of work for a few days? yes please keep me updated on your progress and i hope this next one does the trick for you with the breakouts and the red marks.

Yes I will be very glad to be done w/ these! haha. They wouldn't be so bad if they didn't leave your face a red/burnt mess. But I have heard they are having trials that use a form of green light instead of blue or red which is suppose to not leave your face red. So I am hoping that becomes available soon. As for work I currently do not have a job so I don't have to worry about going to work while I heal from this. But if I was working I would for sure take the first 48hrs after the treatment just staying at home.

hey so how is your skin now? are you still doing these treatments?

I have had two of these treatments so far. I am still breaking out a bit, I most likely need a third. It did nothing for my red marks which bums me out, but Im going to try a third one hopefully and see how that goes. If anyone has any questions about this treatment I will be more than happy to answer.

i am sorry to hear you are still breaking out a bit. did you get it done for your entire face? i was thinking of asking about my chin area because i think i have enlarged oil glands there because i have these strange bumps that wont go away and my chin is the only area of my face that is super super oily. does your skin look any better besides the red marks?

Yes both times were on my entire face. I do think my skin looks the same but then again I don't have before pictures to compare.

Every flaw you have on your skin looks way worse when your face is that red/sunburned color. It really did upset me everyday I looked in the mirror. But when the redness completely goes away you start to see your skin the way it is normally and that sort of depresses you because your hoping to see flawless skin. I don't see any difference in anything as far as pore size, skin texture or discoloration. But I will say that some of the pores on my nose don't have blackheads at the moment. Usually every pore on my nose is covered but I do notice that the pores on the tip part of my nose are blackhead free(I haven't changed any of my skincare products). But I am not saying it did work for me or didn't yet because I feel like I should wait a few months and see how that goes.(o:

i gotcha. well definitley keep me updated! the skin place i go to recently told me about this new thing called allumera and then they do ipl over that so its kind of like the pdt but not as strong. it's suppossed to work really well on pore size and clarity of the skin to help make it more even. i might get one in a few weeks so i will let you know if i do.

http://www.allumera.com/

Okay thanks for the link! I havent heard of that allumera before very interesting though!

Im due to go for this treatment today...I am very very nervous but am hoping it will reduce my huge pores and help them stop clogging up daily. I'm too chicken to do the PDT which i hear is horrific. This is suppose to be a milder form...I will let you know how it goes

Im due to go for this treatment today...I am very very nervous but am hoping it will reduce my huge pores and help them stop clogging up daily. I'm too chicken to do the PDT which i hear is horrific. This is suppose to be a milder form...I will let you know how it goes

 

so how did it go for you?

hi all!

Sorry i didn't repy earlier. I haven't been on for a while, i just posted a new question about accutane or spiro use. I am getting really bad cysts around my nose and chin area again. Nothing major but the ones that really hurt when you even talk/move your face. I was a bit emotional over the weekend, wondering if this will ever clear up.

I have pcos so the acne i have can pretty much pop up at any time. I take metformin (glucophage) and it seems like everytime i have sugar or something sweet, my face decides to explode. I thought metformin was supposed to stop that .

i have been on and off BCP's for the past few years, i just seem to get bad side effects but am thinking of finding one thats suitable and hopefully doesn't cause weight gain because i ALWAYS breakout mid cycle and in the last week. I also took antibiotics which i think are useless, they help while you are on them and when you go off the acne just comes back and you mess up your intestinal flora.

wondering whether to go on spiro (which my endo recommended) or going on a low dose of accutane (which derm suggested). I know accutane can help but i don't want to put my body thru hell just for the acne to come back a few months later. I don't really want to 'buy time' if you know what i mean, just being clear a few months. ALL my doctors have warned me that relapses are common and its NOT a cure for acne, just a potential cure. Hormonal problems mean you can relapse. But at this point i'm pretty desperate. Have tried EVERYTHING, from no dairy/sugar, high veg intake, with plenty of fruit, lentils and pulses etc etc and a very healthy diet full of green smoothies.

the photodynamic experience, i just had one but i dont want to do another one. Its SO painful, and you have to stay in for like, a week, and the results are okay but not amazing, still broke out. doc says you have to do 3-4.

HI,

I had The PDT with levulan, Vibraderm and blu light done this past Friday. They first did the vibraderm and applied the levulan for about 1hr then I was under the blu light for about 4 mins. I havent had much of a reaction like vie read about. My face hasnt turned red and I dont see my skin peeling with this first treatment. My complexion is dark and my first thought was that because darker skin patients are not very common I was exposing to a less amount of light because of this. I call them and indeed thats what they told me, they said they put me on less amount of time under light to see how my skin would react but that for my next treatment it would be more aggressive. Any insight on this? The original post seems very similar initial experience.

i am taking spiro now and am waiting for it to start working. this is my 5th week and i don't really have any side effects but it hasn't helped my acne yet either. i know it takes time but i am losing my patience while my cystic acne just keeps getting worse. grr!! my derm doesn't want to give me accutane since they think my acne is hormonal but i am not going to wait around forever for this to work either. i already have scarring so this has been so hard to deal with on a daily basis. i tried the diet thing too and my skin is worse now so for me i dont think diet has anything to do with it. i am on 75mg per day and will go up to 100mg in a few days.

Hi so I have tried everyhting and nothing worked, and i was prescribed accutane for me extremely severe cystic acne, however i will not take it because i dont likethe side effects. i was thinking about taking pdt but i have a few questions:

1) Will it work (I hear it works better for severe acne so i guess thats good)?

2) How painful is it?

3) Am I guaranteed an extremely red face and for how many days?