Medical Health Dental

Continuing further from our past article, Acne: Treatment Methods of Acne: Duration of Acne Treatment, in this article, we will elaborate on the fine details, methods, side effects and cost involved for the various acne treatment methods.
What are the different ways to treat acne?
Acne can be treated by use of the following:

Topical Bactericidals:
This method for treatment of acne is usually availble in the form of cream, ointment or lotion. Chemical used is benzoyl peroxide in the range of 2% to 10% and is easily available as an OTC product. It is observed to give effective results in 6 weeks time if 10% benzoyl peroxide cream is used.
Side-effects are that it can cause dryness, local irritation and redness
Also, it has strong bleaching effect, so it can affect hair as well as clothes.
Other chemicals used are triclosan, or chlorhexidine gluconate.

Topical Antibiotics:
Certain Antibiotics are known to kill the bacteria which are harbored in the blocked follicles. Hence, they may be used for treatment of Acne.
There are 2 types of Antibiotics:

- Applied Antibiotics: These may be available in the form of cream. They have the benefit that they do not cause problems in the stomach as observed in case of Oral Antibiotics.

- Oral Antibiotics: Erythromycin is a commonly used antibiotics which is taken orally. But there are side effects to it. It may cause stomach upsets, teeth yellowing and imbalance of gut flora. Hence, it is advisable to go for oral antibiotics only after applied antibiotics option has failed.

Hormonal treatments Of Acne:
The Hormonal treatments of acne is usually for females. Right from oral medicines to injections applied directly on the pimples, this method is used.

Topical Retinoids:
There is a category of medications available which is used for normalizing the follicle cell life-cycle. They are known as the topical retinoids such as tretinoin (Retin-A), adapalene (Differin), and tazarotene (Tazorac). They have the benefit of having less side effects. They work effectively by influencing the cell creation and death lifecycle of cells in the follicle lining.

Oral retinoids:
It is observed that a daily oral dose of a particular derivative of vitamin A called isotretinoin (branded as Amnesteem, Accutane, Clarus, Sotret, Claravis,) over a period of 4 to 6 months can cause long-term resolution or reduction of acne.

Use of Sulphur to treat Acne:
This is possibly the oldest known method to treat acnes and scars. Sulphur is a known hydrophilic and can easily penetrate into the pores where its antiseptic properties can assist local immune response in easily removing the infection which may result from acne proliferation. The market is full of Sulphur-based cleansers which have a balancing or neutral pH. The application can help eliminate acne and prevent future development by maintaining proper acidity and hence controlling acne growth on the skin surface.

Dermabrasion for Acne treatment:1
There is a cosmetic medical procedure called Dermabrasion. In this process, the surface of the skin is removed by sanding or abrasion. It is commonly used to remove sun-damaged skin and to remove or lessen scars and dark spots on the skin.
However, the method is known to be vary painful and may require use of anaesthesia.

Phototherapy Methods to Treat Acne
There are several methods which are known to treat acne using light, but this light treatment may remove acne only for a short term. The lights used in this method are intense violet light (405-420 nm) generated by specially-built fluorescent lighting, LEDs, dichroic bulbs, or lasers. It is to be used repeatedly, like twice every week. A combination of violet and red visible light (660 nanometer) is known to yield better results.

The next article talks about a short term quick results method of Acne Treatment: Acne Laser treatment