ABSTRACT
Light-based treatments for acne are not new. A tan has long been known to help teens with pimples, and it would not be surprising to find reports of acne phototherapy dating from the 1930s. In my youth, a local dermatologist was treating many of us with what must have been a cold quartz lamp along with various creams and oral antibiotics. He told me that he knew that the light was helpful, but could not say more than that about its mechanism. Since that time, there have been great advances in the understanding of acne and in laser and light technology, but the level of understanding of how light might help acne has not progressed much.
