Light Therapy Is in the Spotlight This Summer

Around the country, experts report a rising interest in light therapy. Aesthetic practices report a sustained increase in light therapy interest from their patients over 2024 and 2025. With more LED devices on the market and a host of in-office options utilizing light, are we in a new age of light therapy dominance?

Featured Experts

• Julie Russak, MD is a board-certified dermatologist in New York
• Joel and Daniel Schlessinger, MDs are board-certified dermatologists practicing in Omaha, NE

The Growth of In-Office Light Therapy

Thanks to our dedicated BeautyEngine community, we’ve been able to keep our finger on the pulse of aesthetic trends. Over 800 aesthetic practices participated in surveys examining patient demand and loyalty, revealing some interesting changes in treatment trends along the way.

The growth in demand for light therapy, which includes LED therapies, IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) and BBL (BroadBand Light) especially caught our eye.

With practices reporting a 54 percent increase in patient interest in 2025, we had to know more!

Why LED Light Therapy?

These days, there is no shortage of at-home light devices, some of which have majorly blown us away. And at the same time, aesthetic practices report seeing an increase in demand for these services in-office, too. Part of that growth has to do with a variety of options available: red, blue, purple and even green light are all routinely used by experts.

“The right combination of wavelengths customized to your skin needs will improve your overall skin health and appearance,” says New York dermatologist Julie Russak, MD.

That said, Omaha, NE dermatologist Joel Schlessinger, MD notes that it’s important to meet patient interest with realistic expectations. “People are absolutely excited about LED treatments and the potential for improvements,” he says. “While these improvements are there, they are very subtle in most cases and are usually best if done in conjunction with medical or cosmetic treatments alongside.  We do recommend and sell various red, blue and other light devices in our clinic, but we also try to level-set as to what our patients might expect from long-term usage.”

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PMD Clean Acne LED Blue Light Smart Facial Cleansing Device ($230)

“Many of our acne patients are looking for non-antibiotic driven options for treatment of their acne and there is a huge body of evidence that blue light can help neutralize porphyrins, which can cause or aggravate acne,” explains Dr. Joel Schlessinger. “We usually do this along with medical therapy, but many patients simply want a device and this is a good start.”

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Foreo FAQ302 Hair Regrowth Scalp Massager ($499)

“Devices like this one can act to both stimulate hair growth and deliver a nice scalp massage,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger. “Again, this is best if done in concert with other treatments in the office.”

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In-Office Light Therapy With Expert-Loved Results

Beyond LED light therapy, there are other in-office treatments that utilize light for major aesthetic transformation.

“We have also seen an exponential increase in demand for light therapy in the form of intense pulsed light (IPL) and its modern-day sibling, broadband light (BBL),” notes Omaha, NE dermatologist Daniel Schlessinger, MD. “These are lasers that have been around for decades in the form of IPL for treating redness and pigmentation, but recent technological advances in the form of BBL HEROic have made the results much better.”

These therapies provide a multitude of aesthetic benefits for patients.

“They allow us to treat redness and pigmentation on the entire body (not just smaller areas like the face), much more rapidly, more safely and with less downtime,” Dr. Daniel Schlessinger says. “It also allows us to treat skin laxity (like crepey skin on the neck, arms and abdomen) and smoothe the skin.”