Suffer From Acne?
Although acne most often occurs during the teenage and young adult years, it can affect anyone at any point in life. Acne can be triggered by stress, changes in hormone levels, becoming pregnant, some prescription drugs, a change in soap or makeup or even sweating more than usual. If you suffer from acne, there are treatment options available that can help lessen your outbreaks and reduce potential scarring.
Topical Treatments
If acne is severe enough to make you self-conscious, it’s probably time to see a dermatologist.
Topical creams are often the first step taken in treating acne, and some of those are available over-the-counter. Those include benzoyl peroxide, resorcinol, salicylic acid and sulfur.
For moderate cases of acne, stronger creams will have to be prescribed by your dermatologist. Prescription strength topical acne creams include azelaic acid, adapalene, tazarotene, tretinoin, Retin-A. Some antibiotic creams like clindamycin, dapsone, erythromycin and sulfacetamide may also help.
Two of the very best are Proactiv and Neutrogena
Your dermatologist may also prescribe oral antibiotics for more severe cases of acne, especially if you have cystic acne. Those include the pill forms of amoxicillin, doxycycline, erythromycin, minocycline, tetracycline and trimethoprim.
Birth control pills often help women who have severe cases of acne because they aid in controlling hormone levels. Spironolactone is sometimes prescribed for hormone induced acne. And other prescription drugs such as Accutane (Sotret), Claravis and Amnesteem are specifically for controlling acne. Pregnant women should not take Accutane though because it is liked to birth defects.
Facials And Steroid Injections
If topical or oral medications aren’t effective, there are other acne treatment options available to you. One is fairly simple and called comedo extraction. This basically involves having a type of facial where the dermatologist or licensed cosmetologist cleans your facial pores and removes any plugs that could cause an acne breakout.
Cystic acne may respond well to corticosteriod injections. Your dermatologist will inject the acne cysts with a steroid that reduces welling and redness and helps the pore to heal faster.
Chemical Peels
Chemical peels are another acne treatment method. A light chemical peel works by helping to remove old or damaged skin and cleaning pores. A solution of glycolic acid, alpha-hydroxy or beta-hydroxy is used. Light and moderate acne can be helped with these types of chemical peels, but for more severe cases of acne a deeper peel may be needed.
Microdermabrasion
With microdermabrasion, the facial skin is exfoliated with a device that shoots a high-speed spray of fine material onto your skin. The material is so fine it doesn’t cause any pain and the procedure removes dead skin and cleans pores.
Laser Treatments
There are also laser procedures (phototherapy) for acne treatment. Different levels of light are used, depending on the severity of your acne. The laser light helps eliminate inflammation of your pores and shrink oil glands.
Fraxel laser treatment is one of the newest laser therapy methods for treating acne scars and helping with breakouts. It works by heating the top layer of skin and the layer right below the surface. The skin responds to heating by forming new cells and collagen. The treatments take about a half hour but it will take about an hour of prep time before the treatment. A topical anesthetic cream is used and positive results can often be seen right after treatment. Only allow a licensed dermatologist or qualified cosmetic surgeon perform Fraxel laser or any other type of laser treatment.
You don’t have to live with the physical and emotion scarring of acne. Find an experienced dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon in your area, have your acne evaluated and get started on a treatment plan.
In the meantime, we recommend two great Acne treatments that you can get started with now.