Acne Info

Effective Acne Treatment: Your Face, Your Choice

Acne lesions heal ever so slowly and could be torture on your patience meter.  But with effective acne treatment, you won’t have to wait until you’re 40 and gay to be acne-free.  Effective acne treatments abound.  From topical creams to cosmetic procedures, you now have a glut of solutions to try and test.

But what effective acne treatment should you try first?  Below are a wide range of options and what they can or can’t do for you.

Antibiotics. This works for moderate to severe breakouts.  You can take the antibiotics by themselves for months, or use them alongside topical products.  Either way, consult your doctor before you buy one.

Acne creams and lotions.  Over-the-counter acne lotions and creams usually work great as an effective acne treatment.  However, they work great on mild acne.  If your pimples do not respond to topical treatment, see your dermatologist for prescription options.

Isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is for cystic acne that’s scarring or acne that hasn’t responded to treatments.  While on it, you have to be monitored by a dermatologist because of possible severe side effects.  How severe?  Let’s put it this way: if you’re female and are of reproductive age, you will have to take part in an FDA-approved monitoring and checking program just to get a prescription.  That is how potent this drug is.

Laser or light therapy.  This treatment is on the pricier end of the spectrum.  They are on their early stages of development, however, so it’s not yet clear how effective they are long term.  Equally unclear is if the results they yield are worth the price tag.

Cosmetic procedures.  Microdermabrasion and chemical peels can do wonders for your wrinkles and facial imperfections.  But are they an effective acne treatment?  Not really.  For them to show optimal results, they need to be used alongside other acne solutions.

Think long and hard before you choose an acne treatment to try.  After all, you have only one face; you can’t afford to play Russian Roulette with it.