No matter what your age, acne care can be tricky business. What works for everyone else might make your acne worse. Plus, there are a lot of half-truths concerning acne, as well as myths that keep people from using proper acne care. The fact is that acne can affect your self-esteem, as well as how people look at you. This is especially true if you have cystic acne, or acne scars.
While acne care for people with mild to moderate acne is not usually a terrible enigma, people with cystic acne, considered the worst type of acne, can be very difficult. For individuals that consistently develop cystic acne lesions or have lesions that will not go away, the majority of over-the-counter acne medications have little effect. In this event, the help of a dermatologist is usually needed.
Depending on the severity of your acne, your complexion, and how oily your skin is, a dermatologist has a wide variety of acne skin care options to control cystic acne or even remove acne scars. Oral medications are the oldest type of treatment for severe acne, but many of these medications are very harsh and have some very undesirable side effects. If a dermatologist does suggest an oral acne medication, you should inquire to the side effects and possible alternatives.
Lasers are becoming a more common solution for severe acne care. Lasers can even be used to remove acne scars, if used properly. However, an inexperienced laser operator can cause permanent scarring.
There are two types of lasers used to treat acne, called ablative and non-ablative lasers. Ablative lasers are the oldest type and the most potentially dangerous. Both types of lasers shrink the oil glands, which slows oil production and prevents acne breakouts, but ablative lasers destroy the outermost layer of your skin. This causes the area treated by ablative lasers to be very red, sensitive, and painful until the skin fully heals. Because the scar tissue is destroyed, the skin that grows back will lack acne scars or wrinkles.
Non-ablative lasers, on the other hand, do not harm the outer layer of skin, but get rid of acne scars by stimulating collagen growth. However, non-ablative lasers, because they are gentler, require multiple treatments, while ablative lasers only require a single treatment.
Many acne care products on the market will claim to eliminate acne scars, but keep in mind that scar reduction is not always guaranteed. One product that has many people reporting a decrease in scarring from acne is Azelaic acid, which comes in the form of a moisturizer. While it does not work for all individuals, Azelaic acid can be helpful to many people.
Proper acne care can be costly and heartbreaking when you find out it doesn’t work. Rather than spend your time with one miracle remedy after another, it might be best to seek out the advice and guidance of a professional dermatologist to deal with cystic acne quickly before scarring occurs.