lunula laser therapy for fungal toenails
why we started looking at alternatives
For Jasmine’s entire career, she has been riddled with the rollercoaster of helping her patients treat their unsightly fungal toenails. Either they had to apply a nail lacquer treatment on their nails every day (not to mention the weekly filing and the 4-6 weekly Podiatry visits) or have to start the arduous process to acquire oral antifungal medication (which, unfortunately, isn’t great for the liver)!
All these required another daily habit where you couldn’t see much of a difference in the nails day by day and left patients feeling deflated and wanting to give up.
Why Lunula Laser Therapy?
Laser therapy has been around for a number of years now, however, it was unrefined. Many hot lasers left patients very sore and their treatment outcome would only be influenced by how much they could tolerate the pain brought on by the laser. At 2 Right Feet Podiatry, we understand that there is some merit to the ‘no pain, no gain’ saying, but only if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
When we found Lunula Laser Therapy, it had already had proven clinical trials from around the world, and many of our UK and USA colleagues have found great success in its use. The best thing about it? It uses a cold laser. This means, there is absolutely no pain involved in the treatment process whatsoever.
The protocol for treatment
After an initial assessment, we will take a photo of your nails to keep on file to record your progress. We will then debride your fungal toenails with a burr which helps reduce the upper layers of the nail to allow the laser machine to penetrate through the nail more effectively. Following that, we place your foot into the Lunula laser machine for 12 mins per foot, and while we wait, we will be sterilising a pair of shoes that we will ask for you to bring in using our SteriShoe. This SteriShoe helps with eliminating any fungal spores present in your footwear to help reduce the chance of reinfection.
We then repeat this process in our initial protocol 4 times on a monthly basis. Dependent on how your fungal toenails look, to begin with, as well as other factors such as how long you’ve had it, we will give you an idea of an estimated timeline that we’d expect resolution.
Unfortunately, like all treatments for fungal toenails, there are many factors that can affect the efficacy of treatment. For chronic infections (those who have had fungal toenails for 6+ months), we usually expect treatments to be 6-8 weeks apart for a complete resolution after 12 or more months (most resolve after 18 months).
The science behind Lunula Laser Therapy
The Lunula machine combines two beneficial low-level laser wavelengths: 405nm and 635nm. Each wavelength is capable of stimulating a specific cascade to help the body grow strong, clear and healthy nails.
The 635nm wavelength stimulates Cytochrome C Oxidsase (CCO), an important enzyme necessary for the production of Adenosine Triphosphate(ATP) and Reactive Oxygen Species(ROS). Increased ATP activates PI3kinase/eNOS signalling pathways, which increases Nitric Oxide (NO) production. NO is critical for new blood vessel formation increasing nutrient delivery and infiltration of immunological cells. For resident macrophages and neutrophils, two types of immune cells, the increased production of ROS is quickly converted into cytotoxic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which enhances the performance of the immune cells.
The 405nm wavelength targets NADPH oxidase (NOX), a membrane-bound enzyme, and increases NOX’s production of ROS, which can be converted into H2O2. The increase in production of H2O2 that is enabled helps to increase fungal spore susceptibility to the body immune response.
Simply put: First, we increase fungal spore susceptibility to the body’s immune response, and then we fortify the body’s immune system.
Make the first step to clear nails
Book in your initial consultation (lunula laser) through the ‘book now’ tab or click the button below for an initial consultation!
