A Guide to Acne

Acne affects most teenagers, from 7^th grade through most of High School. Both boys and girls are affected by acne. Hormones do play a role in developing acne. Estrogens from rapid growing teens make sweat glands more active while testosterone makes secretions in sweat more prone to growing bacteria deep in sweat glands. Bacteria block sweat glands and acne is the result.

Things not to do for acne

It’s not the fast food so much as the amount of caffeine that affects acne. Decrease the amount you drink. Regular soap has Fatty acid products that grow bacteria. Use Glycerine soaps to prevent bacterial growth.

Things to do to Treat Acne

1. Wash your face twice daily with Glycerine based soaps. This can cut down the bacterial numbers a lot. Nutragena is one brand but any of the clear "amber looking" soaps will work. Look on the label to make sure you see the word Glycerine in the ingredients. Regular soaps contain fatty acids and bacteria use this for food. Regular soap encourages bacteria to grow on your skin.

Prescription Medications to treat Acne

2. Use Benzoyl Peroxide Gel twice a day, 2.5% to 5%. It helps open clogged sweat pores.It makes a great deal of difference as to the kind of base the benzoyl peroxide is in. There are Lotions, Creams, Soaps, Astringents, Gels and Solutions. Use the Gel, It does a better job getting deep into the pores.

3. Topical antibiotics (erythromycin or cleocin) used twice a day, helps cut the number of bacteria on the skin. These are prescription, so you'll need to be examined first to make sure you need this medication. They all work the same way by killing the bacteria in your skin. Some have side effects like sun rashes or irritation to your skin, so you have to use them as we talk about in the office.

4. Oral Antibiotics (usually tetracycline or erythromycin) offers stronger bacterial control but have more side effects. You have to be more careful with these because you're now exposing your whole system to them, not just your face. Side effects include possible irritation to your intestional tract by changing the bacteria normally there, skin rashes from sun exposure, skin irritation, and rarely irritation to the liver that metabolizes the medicine.

5. Retin-A breaks down skin clumping in sweat glands, making clogging less likely to occur. It works like an astringent but better. In a very dry climate like ours, retin-A can cause a sun burned appearance to the skin and irritate it by over drying. Care has to be taken to watch for over use and problems from the skin irritation.

6. Accutane, reduces the inflammation, lowers bacterial counts, thins sweat secretions and breaks skin clumping in glands to keep them open. It is incredibly effective, but has a lot of potential side effects. Girls, by regulation will have to be on birth control to use this drug (it can cause birth defects), and liver enzymes and blood counts have to be watched due to seriour potential side effects to the liver and bone marrow. As a result, it's used only in more severe forms of acne.

Keep in mind, it takes 2-3 weeks to even begin to see changes in the skin from using these medications to control your acne. Even if we kill off 100% of the bacteria today, the redness and inflammation of each acne pustule takes several weeks to go away.

You have to be patient. Your acne didn't start in a day and won't go away in a day. Plan to treat your acne a minimum of 4-6 months and even then you might still have flare-ups off and on for several more years. With patients and a handful of medications, we can control your acne and keep your skin healthy and clear.

If you have questions about acne or treatments for acne, you can contact our office at:

Info@LaramieKids.com

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A Guide to Acne

Things to do to Treat Acne

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