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When choosing a panel the most important considerations are power (irradiance), wavelengths, panel size, and uniformity. Secondarily there are differences in the ergonomics, appearance, mounting options and controls.
What is irradiance?
Irradiance is the amount of light energy hitting your skin per second per area (mW/cm2), when you multiply by the amount of time you spend in front of the panel then you get the total dose (fluence) of light energy in terms of J/cm2 for your session. I will refer to ‘fluence’ as dose in this guide to make it easier to understand.
While there is a range of effective doses of red light, with debate over how much is necessary, and whether too much light might be counterproductive. The biphasic response to red light therapy is often discussed but the research to support this was mostly conducted in vitro, that is on cells in a dish, and a few in the setting of wound healing in mice, or for outcomes other than anti-aging. Comparatively the studies that have the most impressive outcomes in human subjects with intact skin with collagen density, wrinkle reduction, acne treatment, and hyperpigmentation effects tend to use higher doses of light. Such as these studies that use 66 J/cm2 of NIR, and 126 J/cm2 of red light per session. More is not always better but as these high fluence studies demonstrate the dose where light therapy becomes ineffective in the context of anti-aging outcomes with LED devices is likely much higher than is practical to achieve. On most panels it would take much longer than the recommended use time to achieve a dose of 126 J/cm2. The lowest end of the scale for LED devices, as opposed to laser devices, is around 5 J/cm2.
Irradiance isn’t the only factor in the efficacy of light therapy, however it is one way to compare products and serves as the most reliable way to estimate treatment time relative to human research across a spectrum of commercially available devices.
The dose you chose may depend on the outcome you are looking for. Low doses have been used to prevent sun damage (5 J/cm2), presumably by increasing the antioxidant capacity of the skin. Whereas higher doses (48-126 J/cm2) have been shown to be effective for acne treatment and anti-aging outcomes like collagen induction, improving hyperpigmentation, and wrinkle reduction.
For discussion on recommended doses see TREATMENT TIME
RANGE OF THERAPEUTIC WAVELENGTHS