Sunlight is essential to almost all forms of life for both light and heat. Plants need sunlight for photosynthesis, and man and animals alike need plants for many vital purposes. The sun featured many Millennia ago not only as a deity but also as a therapeutic source, so phototherapy is by no means a recent phenomenon. Niels Finsen’s therapeutic arc lamp system in the early 1900s replaced the sun as a therapeutic source. Since then, many light sources have been successfully applied for phototherapy, with laser diodes and light-emitting diodes the most efficient. This chapter will explore what phototherapy is, and examine its important role in the fast-developing indication of skin rejuvenation. Systems used in phototherapy will be discussed and compared. Photobiological basics and light/tissue interaction underlying the process will be examined, together with the importance of treatment parameters. The wound healing process, on which skin rejuvenation rests, will be dissected with a discussion of the optimum wavelengths to photoactivate the skin cells, leading to the clinical indications in photorejuvenation.
Part of the book: Photomedicine