When should you start to treat acne? Well, you’ve already started it, haven’t you? You’re here, right now, because your acne is troublesome enough that you simply can’t ignore it any further. In some cases, the best course of action may be to do nothing at all, but for the majority of acne sufferers, the best defense is to treat swiftly.
Mild acne, which is the occasional pimple, whitehead or blackhead, may resolve on its own. That’s perhaps little comfort if you’ve got a big event coming up and you’ve got what looks to be a huge honking zit coming up simultaneously. But the more you worry it, i.e. squeezing it, the worse it will become, and the more likely it is that that particular pimple will leave a scar. As hard as it may be, resist the temptation to squeeze the life out of me, let it run its course, and when the big event arrives, cover it as best you can with a little concealer.
You should start to treat acne as soon as possible if you consider your acne a bit worse than mild, perhaps moderate, and you may want to consider some over-the-counter treatments which typically respond well with prolonged treatment. A visit to a dermatologist or a skin care specialist will help to determine the severity of your acne, and he or she will prescribe the best course of treatment. That may include topical preparations, such as those that contain benzoyl peroxide (which dries up the oil on the surface of your skin and eliminates bacteria), or vitamin A acid (which helps to break up the pimples), or salicylic acid (which helps the skin cells that line the oil glands stop their shedding).
Your doctor may also prescribe oral antibiotics if he considers the degree of acne to be more severe. The medications might include tetracycline and erythromycin, which helps to control the bacterium that is causing the inflammation.
And in the most severe cases of acne, you have several options open to you. The first course of treatment your doctor may decide on could be to prescribe an oral medication, known as Accutaine, which contains synthetically derived Vitamin A. For about 90% of the patients who take this oral medication, within 4 to 6 months their acne is cleared up.
Now, for the 10% of the patients for whom oral medications don’t work, there is still hope. Certain non-surgical procedures, including IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) photofacials, often used in conjunction with chemical peels can help to bring out the beautiful skin beneath the pimples.
So, when you should start your acne is entirely up to you, but the fact remains that in most cases the sooner you ask for help, the sooner you will be on your way to acne-free skin.
For more help with your acne go to http://Acne.ie where you can download a FREE Report called ‘The Facts About Acne and What You Need to Know’.
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