Acne vulgaris is a common chronic skin disease involving blockage and/or inflammation of the hair follicles and their accompany sebaceous glands.~Research has shown the benefits of red and blue light therapy in the treatment of mild to moderate acne, with red and blue light shown to target acne-causing bacteria and have an effect on inflammation reduction.~Light-based therapies have been used successfully to treat dermatological conditions since the early 1900s, with various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (i.e. ultraviolet [UV], visible, near-infrared, etc.) demonstrating different benefits. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) offer delivery of light to the skin in a gentler manner as compared to light delivered by lasers, primarily due to the lower energy output. It has been reported that LEDs do not deliver enough power to damage tissues and do not have the same risk of accidental eye damage that lasers do. Visible-LED light therapy has been deemed a non-significant risk by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been approved for use in humans.~It is well established in the literature that visible light penetration into the epidermal and dermal layers of human skin is primarily governed by absorption and scattering events, with the latter being the more impactful of the two. Visible light penetration into human skin can be increased by reducing scattering. This can be accomplished by temporary hydrogen bonding disruption, which leads to the reversible rearrangement of epidermal and dermal structures that cause scattering. Glycerol (i.e. glycerin) is hypothesized to generate the level of hydrogen bonding disruption described above, and therefore will be investigated in the present study.~This study will look to evaluate and then compare the acne clearing efficacy and tolerance of two different acne treatment regimens - a cleanser used with a currently marketed red and blue light acne light therapy mask alone vs. the cleanser used with the same mask in conjunction with a light therapy topical gel-cream - to determine the efficacy of these treatments and then to assess if the efficacy of the light therapy mask used with the topical gel-cream treatment is non-inferior to the mask alone in the reduction of lesions in mild to moderate acne. If non-inferiority is demonstrated, the mask with topical gel-cream treatment will be further assessed for its superiority to the mask alone.
This study will compare two different acne treatment regimens for the treatment of acne. Half of participants will receive a cleanser and a light therapy mask, while half of the participants will receive a cleanser, a light therapy topical gel-cream, and a light therapy mask.