What should I do right now?
Pause further treatment and follow your personal action plan while you contact the phototherapy team. Seek urgent assessment for severe pain, blistering, swelling across a large area, new eye symptoms, feeling very unwell, or whenever your plan directs urgent care. Evidence Evidence
How to use this step
- Sources cited, not yet graded
Your clinician-confirmed action plan should tell you whom to contact and what information the team needs. Report the concern and let the treating team choose the next treatment step.
Check before moving on
- Depends on you
A symptom list cannot grade your reaction, diagnose its cause, or account for every health condition. If the situation feels urgent or is getting worse, seek qualified care without waiting for an online answer.
Questions for the clinician assessing the reaction
Who should I contact after clinic hours?
Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.Which symptoms in my plan mean I should seek urgent care?
Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
Two speeds after a session
Something feels or looks wrong after a session. How fast should you act?
- Seek urgent assessment
- If there is severe pain, blistering, swelling across a large area, new eye symptoms, feeling very unwell, or whenever your plan directs urgent care.If the situation feels urgent or is getting worse, seek qualified care without waiting for an online answer.
- Pause and contact the team
- If your plan does not direct urgent care, the concern still belongs with the phototherapy team.Pause further treatment, follow your personal action plan, and let the treating team choose the next treatment step.
Read off the British Association of Dermatologists narrowband UVB guideline and patient leaflet I cite here.
Could it be a reaction even if my skin does not look red?
Yes. A color change can be subtle or hard to interpret, particularly in deeper skin tones. Report pain, tenderness, heat, swelling, blistering, marked itching, or another concerning change. No obvious redness does not mean it is safe to continue or change treatment on your own. Evidence Evidence
How to use this step
- Sources cited, not yet graded
Comparing the area with your own baseline can be more useful than forcing it into a color label. Write down what you could feel as well as what you could see.
Check before moving on
- Depends on you
Do not use a photograph, color name, or skin-type category to choose the next step. Ask the treating team to assess both depigmented and surrounding skin.
Questions for the clinician assessing the reaction
Which skin changes should I watch for?
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Should I change the next treatment or try to treat the reaction myself?
Do not adjust, catch up, restart, or create a home-care treatment for the reaction yourself. Contact your phototherapy team for advice based on your plan, skin, medicines, and device. Evidence Evidence
How to use this step
- Sources cited, not yet graded
A treatment change requires clinical interpretation of the reaction, your diagnosis, other products and medicines, the equipment, and your prescribed plan. General sunburn advice is not a phototherapy plan.
Check before moving on
- Depends on you
Ask the phototherapy team before using a remedy. Even a product that feels soothing may not fit your treatment situation.
Questions for the clinician assessing the reaction
What should I do before my next planned treatment?
Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.What should I avoid while you assess this?
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What if itching is the main change I notice?
Itching can happen during a phototherapy course, but it does not reveal the cause or tell you that it is safe to continue. Report itching that is new, strong, persistent, or getting worse to your treating team. Evidence Evidence
How to use this step
- Sources cited, not yet graded
Tell the team where the itching occurred; whether the skin also felt hot, painful, tender, swollen, or blistered; and whether you recently changed a medicine or skin product.
Check before moving on
- Depends on you
Itching can have more than one explanation, and its timing does not prove the cause. Ask a qualified clinician to distinguish a treatment reaction from another skin or medical problem.
Questions for the clinician assessing the reaction
Should I contact you before my next treatment?
Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.What else should I note so you can assess it?
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What should I record before I call?
Write down when you noticed the concern and which areas were involved. Record what you saw and felt, how it changed, and the exact device and protection used. Include recent medicine or skin-product changes. This helps the conversation but cannot prove the cause. Evidence Evidence Evidence Evidence
How to use this step
- Sources cited, not yet graded
A simple timeline can make the event easier to explain and help separate skin or health observations from an equipment concern. Device problems go to the manufacturer or regulator route; effects on your skin or health go to the care team.
Check before moving on
- Depends on you
Even a detailed record cannot establish the cause. Photographs may document appearance, but they cannot grade the reaction or replace an assessment.
Questions for the clinician assessing the reaction
Would a photograph or any other details help you review this concern?
Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.Should I contact the manufacturer about the device separately?
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Applicability check
Who was studied?
These fields show what the cited evidence reports about the people and body sites behind outcome or safety claims. “Not reported” means the reviewed source omitted the field; “Pending exact source review” means SteadySkin has not made that determination yet.
Pause further treatment and follow your personal action plan while you contact the phototherapy team. Seek urgent assessment for severe pain, blistering, swelling across a large area, new eye symptoms, feeling very unwell, or whenever your plan directs urgent care.
- Age range
- Not reported
- Condition subtype
- Not reported
- Severity or extent
- Not reported
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Geography and care setting
- One source is the UK narrowband UVB guideline for clinic and home services. The other is a UK hospital unit patient leaflet, last updated June 2022 and past its own review date. Neither reports a study population.
- Skin tone or phototype
- Not reported
- Race
- Not reported
- Ethnicity
- Not reported
- Body sites
- Not reported
What that means for this page: Both sources are guidance, not a study of a group of people. The narrowband UVB guideline records redness as the most common short-term effect and painful or blistering reactions as infrequent. The patient leaflet asks a hospital unit’s patients to contact the phototherapy nurses about a severe sunburn-type reaction. Neither says how likely any one person is to react. The urgent-care thresholds here come from a reader’s own action plan, not from either document.
Yes. A color change can be subtle or hard to interpret, particularly in deeper skin tones. Report pain, tenderness, heat, swelling, blistering, marked itching, or another concerning change. No obvious redness does not mean it is safe to continue or change treatment on your own.
- Age range
- Not reported
- Condition subtype
- Not reported
- Severity or extent
- Not reported
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Geography and care setting
- One source is the UK narrowband UVB guideline for clinic and home services. The other is a UK hospital unit patient leaflet, last updated June 2022 and past its own review date. Neither reports a study population.
- Skin tone or phototype
- Not reported
- Race
- Not reported
- Ethnicity
- Not reported
- Body sites
- Any treated skin, both depigmented and surrounding. Neither source gives a body-site breakdown for spotting a reaction.
What that means for this page: Both sources are guidance. The narrowband UVB guideline records that the reported rate of redness varies across studies, and that clinicians grade it by discomfort as well as appearance. The patient leaflet asks people to report a severe sunburn-type reaction and any new medicine or cream. Neither followed a group of patients, and neither sets a colour threshold. Neither breaks the guidance down by skin tone, so this record cannot either.
Do not adjust, catch up, restart, or create a home-care treatment for the reaction yourself. Contact your phototherapy team for advice based on your plan, skin, medicines, and device.
- Age range
- Not reported
- Condition subtype
- Not reported
- Severity or extent
- Not reported
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Geography and care setting
- One source is the UK narrowband UVB guideline for clinic and home services. The other is a UK hospital unit patient leaflet, last updated June 2022 and past its own review date. Neither reports a study population.
- Skin tone or phototype
- Not reported
- Race
- Not reported
- Ethnicity
- Not reported
- Body sites
- Not reported
What that means for this page: Both sources are guidance, not a study. The narrowband UVB guideline places dose testing, protocol design, and the response to a reaction with the phototherapy service. It says a protocol is only a guide that a clinician adapts. The patient leaflet routes a severe reaction to the unit’s nurses. Neither gives a home adjustment step, a catch-up rule, or first-aid instructions for a reader to follow, and I reproduce none of them here.
Itching can happen during a phototherapy course, but it does not reveal the cause or tell you that it is safe to continue. Report itching that is new, strong, persistent, or getting worse to your treating team.
- Age range
- Not reported
- Condition subtype
- Not reported
- Severity or extent
- Not reported
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Geography and care setting
- One source is the UK narrowband UVB guideline for clinic and home services. The other is a UK hospital unit patient leaflet, last updated June 2022 and past its own review date. Neither reports a study population.
- Skin tone or phototype
- Not reported
- Race
- Not reported
- Ethnicity
- Not reported
- Body sites
- Not reported
What that means for this page: Both sources are guidance. The narrowband UVB guideline states that itch during treatment is commonly reported, but that it may come from the skin condition being treated rather than the light. The patient leaflet lists a spotty itchy rash and dry, itchy skin among things some people notice during a course. Neither measured how often itch follows treatment or separated its causes. Itch on its own cannot show the cause, or show that continuing is safe.
Write down when you noticed the concern and which areas were involved. Record what you saw and felt, how it changed, and the exact device and protection used. Include recent medicine or skin-product changes. This helps the conversation but cannot prove the cause.
- Age range
- Not reported
- Condition subtype
- Not reported
- Severity or extent
- Not reported
- Sample size
- Not reported
- Geography and care setting
- One source is the UK narrowband UVB guideline for clinic and home services. The others are the US FDA MedWatch reporting page and the manual and support routes for named phototherapy devices. None reports a study population.
- Skin tone or phototype
- Not reported
- Race
- Not reported
- Ethnicity
- Not reported
- Body sites
- Not reported
What that means for this page: None of these sources is a study. The guideline asks people to check with staff before starting any new medicine during treatment, and describes assessing a reaction as a clinical task. The MedWatch page is a route for reporting a serious device problem and does not prove a device caused it. The manufacturer pages are equipment-support routes. Together they support keeping a plain factual record and separating a device fault from a health concern. A record still cannot prove what caused a reaction.
Evidence behind this page
Sources
Each evidence badge opens the source and its limits. The full list stays available here.
- Phothera PhototherapyManufacturer document · Manufacturer, tier 4Independence not established
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports the current first-party route to Phothera device and accessory manuals and shows that instructions are model- and controller-specific.
What it does not support
It does not establish clinical suitability, comparative benefit, the condition of an individual unit, or that one manual applies to a related or legacy model; each exact linked manual and revision still requires verification.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- Solarc Systems Inc.Manufacturer document · Manufacturer, tier 4Independence not established
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports one page of the named SolRx E-Series manual revision, its specifications page. That page carries the models covered, the narrowband waveband, the bulb type and count, the nominal irradiance figures with their stated caution, and the per-device electrical and fuse ratings. It does not support another SolRx family, confirm that this is the newest revision for an individual unit, establish clinical suitability, or prove comparative safety or effectiveness; the owner must verify the exact current manual with Solarc.
What it does not support
The linked file is that one page, not the whole manual. It does not carry the installation, protective-equipment, maintenance or support sections that the rest of the manual holds.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationRegulatory · Regulatory / guideline, tier 1Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports that patients, consumers, and health professionals can use FDA MedWatch to report serious reactions, product-quality problems, product-use errors, and other serious problems involving human medical products, including medical devices.
What it does not support
It does not determine whether a report is required, prove causation, replace clinical care, or replace the manufacturer’s equipment-support route.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- British Journal of Dermatology (Goulden V, et al.)Guideline · Regulatory / guideline, tier 1Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
It supports that traditional NB-UVB fluorescent lamps emit a narrow UVB band peaking around 311 nanometres. It backs wearing UV-protective goggles and keeping UV scatter off people nearby. It records the consent form naming goggles and the same clothing at each session. It also covers clinical uses, how it compares with other light treatments, safety limits including sunburn-type reactions, and the added safeguards home phototherapy needs.
What it does not support
It does not provide a personal treatment plan, approve a particular home setup, or replace the instructions for your own device. SteadySkin never reproduces its treatment schedules.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- British Association of DermatologistsPatient education · Patient education, tier 5Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
It supports a plain-language explanation that NB-UVB uses a small part of the UVB spectrum, is used for conditions including psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo, and is distinct from sunlight or a sunbed. It also supports what a unit asks of its own patients during a course. It asks them not to sunbathe or use a sunbed for the whole of it, and to reduce sun exposure so that skin does not burn. It asks them to report a medicine, a cream, or newly exposed skin such as a haircut. It asks them to arrive without perfume, deodorant, aftershave or other cosmetics, because some of those raise light sensitivity and can leave patchy discolouration for months. It carries the unit’s own account of repeated courses. It states that the full risk of narrowband UVB is not known, and that roughly one in ten people in the UK develop skin cancer. It states that a review becomes usual practice past a stated number of treatments, and that many treatments can bring the wrinkling and discolouration of photoageing.
What it does not support
It is patient education, not primary evidence for an efficacy claim. Its printed next review date was June 2025 and it has not been updated since June 2022. It is therefore used only for what it plainly states, and never as current guidance. It is written for a UK hospital unit whose nurses examine skin at every visit, so it sets no rule for a device used at home. Its numbers stay in this record rather than in the copy. Those are the sun protection factor and star rating it names, the hours it names, the treatment count that triggers a review, and the multiple by which it estimates lifetime risk. That multiple is stated there as an assumption that narrowband UVB behaves like sunlight, not as a measurement.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.