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Neonatal Dermatology Acne 101

Skin Health Acne

Acne Treatment

Summary & Participants

Handling acne begins with basic skin care techniques and understanding your treatment options.

Medically Reviewed On: July 18, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Getting a handle on acne begins with basic skin care techniques and understanding your treatment options.

LAWRENCE F. EICHENFIELD, MD: We want people to wash their face generally twice a day. It doesn't really matter what they wash with. Any standard soap is reasonable.

People should be gentle with their face. In fact, if you have a lot of inflammatory acne, if you really scrub your face very hard, you can worsen the acne.

ANNOUNCER: A number of other factors can cause acne to flare up, such as oily or greasy skin products, environmental irritants like pollution and high humidity and squeezing or picking at blemishes.

Changing hormone levels in adolescent girls and adult women can also worsen acne.

LAWRENCE F. EICHENFIELD, MD: Women of childbearing years and beyond, the hormonal fluctuations that they have can certainly cause breakouts.

ANNOUNCER: An effective treatment for women experiencing hormonally-influenced acne is low-dose estrogen oral contraceptives.

Over the counter gels, lotions, creams and soaps are available to people who need help controlling acne. Many of these topical medicines contain benzoyl peroxide.

LAWRENCE F. EICHENFIELD, MD: Benzoyl peroxide and topical antibiotics decrease the amount of bacteria in the skin. They stop the production of the bacteria within the sebaceous gland and the follicle. Where you knock down the bacteria, you also can decrease the production of further acne lesions.

ANNOUNCER: Benzyl peroxide can have side effects.

LAWRENCE F. EICHENFIELD, MD: There are a few percent of the population who are actually allergic to benzoyl peroxide, so they can get sort of welty or rash reactions to the medication. Also as you get to stronger version of benzoyl peroxide, you can have drying or irritation.

There are some practical aspects to using it that people should know about. It can cause bleaching, both of the skin in darker skin types, but also on towels and clothing that it comes in contact with.

ANNOUNCER: Products containing benzyl peroxide and topical antibiotics can be highly effective for people with mild to moderate acne. Topical medicines containing resorcinol and sulfur break down blackheads and whiteheads.

If the over the counter products are unsuccessful, prescription medications are the next step.

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