What is phototherapy? What is Light Therapy?

What is ‘Narrowband UVB’? What’s it used for?

Phototherapy and light therapy refers to medically therapeutic exposure to light, or using light to treat medical problems. Ultraviolet (UV) light is most frequently used, and it is broken down into three band-ranges. The A range (the "colors" that generate suntans; ~320-400 nm), the B range (the "colors" that can cause sunburns; ~290-320 nm), and the C range (the "colors" that are lethal to most living things; ~100-250 nm); these bands are also known as UVA, UVB and UVC.

While UVC lights are used in a variety of air & water purification and sterilization systems, there are currently no therapeutic uses for UVC light;
it is simply too intense.

UVA lamps are most commonly used in tanning systems, but they are also used medicinally for what’s called "PUVA" therapy. For decades, PUVA was the only effective treatment for many people.

Too much UVB light and you’ll quickly get a sunburn, but when carefully administered it can be the solution for millions of people suffering with psoriasis and vitiligo, along with a long list of other conditions.

Within the UVB range, there is a very specific frequency range that appears to be what most skin problems are thirsty for; this is called "Narrowband UVB" (nbUVB; 311-313 nm) and it is effective for roughly 80% of all applicable patients. Its only side effects are sunburns (if you over-do it) and cataracts (if you don’t shield your eyes). While a history of moderate to severe sunburns has been linked to an increased risk for certain skin cancers, the proper use of UVB light has never been shown to increase the risk for skin cancer; and that’s with almost a century of medical use.

Light therapy - known medically as phototherapy - specifically nbUVB, is most often used to treat conditions like psoriasis, vitiligo and eczema. Less common problems that respond well to nbUVB are certain types of dermatitis, prurigo, porphyria, pruritis, a form of cancer usually called CTCL (Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma). Phototherapy is safe enough to be used with pregnant or lactating women as well as children.

The basic goal behind nbUVB therapy is determining how much light exposure causes your skin to burn by slowly increasing your exposure amounts until your skin begins to burn. You take treatments that are just below that amount every other day (at most) until you are clear again following the basic protocol developed by the National Psoriasis Foundation.

What’s so different about the UVBioTek™ units?
Distance is critical with UVB rays
When treating psoriasis or other medical skin conditions such as psoriasis, vitiligo or eczema, note that for every inch between the body and the phototherapy light therapy lamps, there is a significant decrease in UV light effectiveness. Testing shows a decrease in UVB output of 50% or more after just six to seven inches of travel. A dramatic 70% drop occurs at just ten inches away.

Our competitors’ light therapy or phototherapy devices, designed in the 1960’s yet still sold today, are bulky, refrigerator-like and stationary. They are inflexible and created to accommodate the largest bodies. They require an excessive number of lamps to offset the distance discrepancy (or light dissipation) for smaller bodies, and the majority of users may be standing at or beyond the ten inch mark – which means the treatment, despite the extra lamps, is only 30% effective.

Ours by comparison are designed to fold around all body sizes, with a
distance from the lamps of as little as two inches. This allows for maximum phototherapy effectiveness in psoriasis treatment, as well as vitiligo, eczema and similar conditions. It also requires far less space than the outdated booths, especially since the unit folds against the wall. In terms of energy saving, tests show that superior light output is achieved in our systems with up to 30% fewer lamps. That means a huge savings on electricity and re-lamping costs.

Evenness of exposure
Joules-based treatments (light treatments) are problematic and are difficult to accurately determine with stationary, round, hexagon and square phototherapy light therapy systems. If your shoulders are four inches from the lamps, your front and back are eight inches and your legs twelve inches, how do you set the Joules accurately for the front, back and legs without over-exposing the shoulders and/or sides of the body? The UVBioTek™ full-body units solve this problem through adjustable panels.

The adjustable panels also solve the problem of maximizing the proximity between the body and the lamps for varying body types. No matter the body type, the UVBioTek™ unit delivers treatment at peak efficacy.