Light Based Wrinkle Therapy

"Laser" on a wrinkle menu can point to more than one treatment, and light-based therapy is the one most easily confused.

This guide lines up light-based wrinkle therapy against laser resurfacing using the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery's descriptions. It marks where a common claim reaches further than they do. The society's overview of laser and light therapy is the wider frame.

What light therapy involves

The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery says that during laser/light therapy, a low-level laser, usually red, is applied to the area of wrinkled skin. That sentence names the kind of laser and where it goes. It gives no session count and no timeline.

Light therapy beside resurfacing

The society gives skin laser resurfacing for wrinkles its own page, apart from its page on laser therapy for wrinkles. A menu that folds both under "laser" merges categories the source keeps separate. The resurfacing page is the place to check which description a provider is borrowing.

Where claims run past the source

Low-level and usually red are the only descriptors in the sentence above. A claim of a stronger effect, a shorter recovery or longer-lasting results goes past it. The society's page on wrinkles describes the condition these options are aimed at, without crediting any one option with those outcomes.

A plain verdict on light therapy

From the source alone, light therapy is a low-level laser applied to wrinkled skin, and resurfacing is a separate treatment. Which one fits you is a decision for a provider who has examined your skin.