Acne & Acne Scars

Acne is one of the most common skin conditions that people experience. Pimples are mostly on the face, forehead, chest, shoulders and upper back.

Acne mainly affects teenagers but adults can also develop acne as there are a variety of causes for acne that can occur at any age. Most people will have at least a mild form of acne at some point in their lives. So if you have acne, know you’re not alone.

What are the most common causes of acne?

• Stress.
• Make-up or skin care products that are unsuitable for your skin type.
• Some drugs like steroids and oral contraceptive pills.
• Pregnancy might cause a flare in some females.
• Acne can be a part of underlying disease when accompanied with hirsutism, androgenic alopecia and weight gain.

Seeking medical consultation as early as possible is recommended to treat your acne, have a good skin care routine for your skin and prevent development of acne scars.

How do we treat your acne?

Acne treatment depends on how severe it is. Acne can be mild (a few occasional pimples), moderate (inflammatory papules) or severe (nodules and cysts).

Acne medications work by reducing sebum production (an oily substance), removing dead skin cells and treating bacterial infection. There are different Topical and Oral treatments, in addition to clinic procedures that treat acne.

What about Acne scars?

We have variety of therapies to treat Acne scars depending on their type.

Types of acne scars include;
– Red spots.
– Dark spots.
– White spots.
– Depressed scars
– Elevated scars

At the Klinic, the treatment regimen we recommend for you depends on your age, the severity of your acne and type of acne scars.

What are the different modalities of treatment?

1. Topical Treatments

Retinoids.
Antibiotics.
Azelaic acid
Salicylic acid.
Complementary treatments. include zinc, nicotinamide, vitamin C, niacinamide.

2. Oral Medications

Antibiotics. Usually our first choice of antibiotics is a tetracycline (minocycline, doxycycline). Macrolides (erythromycin, azithromycin) might be an option for people who can’t take tetracyclines.

Oral antibiotics should be used for the shortest time possible and they should be combined with other drugs to reduce the risk of developing antibiotic resistance.

Anti-androgen agents. The drug spironolactone (Aldactone) may be considered for women and adolescent girls if oral antibiotics aren’t helping.
Isotretinoin. It is a derivative of vitamin A. It is prescribed for people with moderate to severe acne or those who hasn’t responded to other treatments.

3. Clinic Procedures

Comedones extraction. Special tools are used to gently remove blackheads (comedones).
Laser and Light therapy. A variety of Lasers and light-based therapies are of use to treat both acne and acne scars.

– Fr. Co2.
– Pulsed dye laser.
– Intensed Pulsed Light – IPL.

Microneedling. Used in treatment of different types of acne scars specially dark spots and depressed scars.
Steroid injection. Used in treatment of nodular and cystic lesions and also for elevated acne scars.
Chemical peel. This procedure uses chemical solution, such as salicylic acid / glycolic acid.
Fillers. Suitable for some cases who have deep rolling acne scars.