Photodynamic Therapy was developed in the 1970's to treat cancers deep within the body. The initial problem was targeting the light in deeper areas of the body to take advantage of the selective absorption of the photosensitizing drug. New improvements have facilitated treatments for these regions. However with superficial regions such as our skin the delivery of light is much easier. Research has led to the discovery of specific drugs which can be absorbed by damaged or inflamed skin cells such as those from chronic sun exposure, acne causing bacteria, and pre-cancerous skin lesions know as actinic keratoses or A. K. s. In 1990, a new topical photosensitizing agent known as ALA (amino-levulinic acid) was introduced to work on damaged skin cells. This has led to the development of an optimal purification and concentration of the agent in a unique delivery system known as the Levulan Kerastick from Dusa Pharmaceuticals. Now the combination of the application of Levulan followed by the exposure of specific blue light from our laser systems causes selective destruction of targeted cells. The targeted cells can be pre-cancerous cells, acne infected cells, and those cells with significant sun damage.

Taking The Benefits Of Photodynamic Therapy for aesthetic benefits, acne, actinic keratoses or sun damage spots, and skin texture can all be improved with this advanced treatment offered by Dr. James Newman. After many years of study and evaluation the use of Dusa Pharmaceutical's Levulan product, treatments can be tailored to treat pre-cancerous conditions such as multiple actinic keratoses. In fact, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) granted an approval for treating this condition using the Levulan Kerastik in 1999.

The Levulan or (amino-levulinic acid) can be used with Dr. Newman's laser systems to effectively treat skin texture, sebaceous hyperplasia, acne, actinic keratoses, and refine pore size.

TROUBLESOME SKIN PORES and ACNE? Want to avoid the use of ACCUTANE?
Many patients who have failed to improve their pore size with topical skin creams, can achieve much better results with a few treatments using Levulan and pulsed light. The same can be said for patients with difficult acne who want to try a treatment which may allow them to forego treatment with ACCUTANE. Often times for the acne patients, the use of antibiotics and benzoyl peroxide and products such as PROACTIVE aren't enough to resolve the acne breakouts. The advantage of using Levulan ----- The agent is specifically absorbed by the acne causing bacteria and thus marked for destruction when photodynamic therapy is used. As shown in the figure above, after the Levulan is absorbed, the blue light from our laser causes absorption of photon energy and this energy then destroys the cells which were targeted.