Does having an IPL treatment (or other laser treatments) make acne worse?

Dr. Irwin
December 8, 2012
Continuation: I am the same one with the IPL concerns. Sorry I forgot one important thing! Will IPL increase or cause breakouts? I am already acne prone with blackheads, whiteheads, etc. That's why I'm on a tretinoin. So I definitely don't want to do anything to make that worse.

The short answer to this is no.  Generally, an IPL treatment will have either no effect on acne or make it temporarily better.  IPL treatments may decrease oil production slightly thus improvement in acne and the slight decrease in pore size many patients experience.  Again, this is usually temporary and I’ve never seen any data on this – just observed it in many patients over many years. More on IPL/photorejuvenation.

In our experience, most of the acne breakouts after laser treatments are due to products used for post laser care. If you are going right back to your own products after IPL, it would be ususual to have problems.  Dr. I

Dr. Brandith Irwin, MD

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Hi, I’m Dr. Irwin. I believe that consumers deserve a medically trained and unbiased skin care advocate.

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