Health and Fitness

Curing acne is something that many medications promise but few deliver. The shelves of your local pharmacy or supermarket are stocked with skin treatments that claim to get rid of zits once and for all. If you have been troubled by this common but painful condition, you have probably carted home special creams, concealers, soaps, and vitamins in the hope that your skin will be zit-free in the few short days advertised on the labels.

If over-the-counter products have been ineffective however, it is time for you to make an appointment with your family physician or dermatologist. Your doctor can prescribe topical treatments that are stronger and more effective than the ones available without a prescription.

Your specialist may begin with simple external applications such as benzoil peroxide. Formulations containing benzoil peroxide work by killing bacteria that are trapped in your pores by excess oil. Unfortunately, superficial skin medications do not address deep infections that cannot be reached from the skin’s surface.

Deeper body surface infections may respond to management with an antibiotic. Two of the most common antibiotics used for curing body surface infections are tetracycline and erythromycin. These medications eliminate the bacteria causing infection in the deepest layers of the skin.

Your physician may prescribe a chemical peel as well as medication. A chemical such as glycolic acid is used to cause the uppermost layer of your skin to peel off. Other, less extreme ways of removing the top layer of your skin comprise scrubbing your face with slightly abrasive pads or employing skin washes that contain beads or microscopic particles.

It has long been recognized that exposure to sunshine can be used as a body surface treatment. Special lighting is now available that can reduce the number of inflamed skin lesions by about 70% or so within about a month. One advantage of this technique is that it has no known side effects, although it is not as efficacious if the infection is severe.

Birth control pills are sometimes prescribed to manage body surface breakout, but the pill has arguably serious side effects. The Diane-35, which was specifically developed to treat severe cases of zits (and not for birth control), has been linked to a small but elevated risk of blood clots compared to other birth control pills. You should also know that if you are taking tetracycline, it negates the contraceptive effectiveness of the pill.

Finding a cure for the breakout is the objective, but the approach should be chosen based on the severity of your skin breakout and the risks linked with potential treatments. Whether the treatments you choose are topical or internal, your doctor can explain what you need to take into consideration prior to making a decision. Body surface medications may be more effective than topical treatments, but they have potentially more serious side effects. You need professional advice and realistic expectations for any method of curing acne you try.

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