Treatment

Acne usually disappears around the age of 18 to 20. But that doesn’t mean that you have to sit and endure passively, but you are able to do a lot of things to alleviate the acne, shorten its duration and reduce the frequency of acne episodes. This will improve not only your skin condition but also your emotional wellbeing!

    Acne tends to occur in episodes, which means that it may appear and disappear in the course of weeks and months. This is more often the case for girls, and the episodes are usually related to their menstrual cycle. But boys as well have episodes with stronger acne alternating with periods relatively free of skin problems.  

You can reduce these episodes if you gently clean your skin on a regular basis and follow the therapy recommendations of your doctor or dermatologist. But it is mostly not possible to avoid the episodes entirely. It’s good to be prepared, and to be aware that you usually haven’t done anything wrong, but that this is simply the nature of acne. After a while, you will develop a fine intuition for your own body, learn to understand the first signs and be able to react to them.

Which are the measures that can you take against the acne?

Adequate skin cleaning is the first step. More...
Consumer promotion tries to make us believe that the main remedy against acne is skin cleaning. This is nonsense. As a matter of course, you should clean your skin one to two times a day (but not more frequently) with a solution of a mild synthetic detergent.

This detergent should possess about the same pH value as the skin, i. e. 5.5, to make sure that the natural protective layer on the skin will not be destroyed. This will prevent an additional infection of the blemished skin with bacteria.

If you wash your skin very frequently or if you use soap or alcohol-containing cleansers from the drugstore, this may irritate your skin and even lead to the development of comedones.

If your skin tends to shine greasily, you may dab it cautiously with cosmetic tissues during the day.

Cleansing products should be applied sparingly and washed off afterwards thoroughly.

For helpful hints on how to care for acne skin, please read the pages with general information on skin: Skin care.

How do I best take care of my skin? More...
Try to avoid oily products for skin conditioning, as they may clog the pores and reinforce the acne.

Try instead to adapt your conditioning to your skin type (dry / oily). For dry skin, mild products containing moisturizer are recommended, to return the necessary moisture to the skin after cleaning, without clogging the pores.

Your doctor, dermatologist or medical cosmetician can recommend suitable products to you. Many of the acne medicaments currently prescribed may be produced in base substances with a conditioning effect.

For helpful hints on how to care for acne skin, please read the pages with general information on skin: Skin care.

Make-up. More...
Using make-up is completely okay; lipstick, eye shadow etc. are mostly entirely unproblematic.

But choose your face cream carefully: if it is too oily, it may clog your pores and cause comedones. If you want to know more about which ingredients of cosmetics may worsen acne, please continue to read here.

Ingredients of cosmetics

It can be quite interesting to become aware of the ingredients of cosmetic products. They may contain substances that favour the development of comedones, as e. g. peanut oil that is part of many conditioning creams.

The manufacturer is obliged to quote all ingredients of his product on the package. If a product contains one or several of the following substances, you might want to look for another product:

  • Butyl Stearate
  • Cetyl Alcoho
  • Hexyne Glycol
  • Isopropyl Myristate
  • Lanolin
  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
  • PEG-12
  • Sesamum Indicum
  • Stearic Acid
  • Sulfur
 

Consult a doctor or dermatologist. More...

Acne is a skin disease and as such may and should receive professional medical treatment.

Your physician will set up an individual therapy programme with you. The measures will depend on your acne type and your skin type. Please find below an overview of the treatment possibilities:

Therapy Treatment
External (local) therapy Creams and ointments that treat the inflammatory regions, dissolve the strong hornifications and fight the bacterial infection and the overactivity of the sebaceous glands; deep cleansing by a medical cosmetician; recommendations for skin cleansing and skin care.
Internal (systemic) therapy Oral intake of medications to fight the inflammations, the strong hornifications and the overactivity of the sebaceous glands. Girls: possibly intake of a special birth control pill.


Besides it can be helpful if you regularly see a medical cosmetician, especially if you have serious acne. Depending on the severity of the acne, it can be helpful to do this one to three times in three months. She will do professional skin cleansing and e. g. remove the comedones to avoid inflammations and treat the affected skin areas. Please ask your doctor or dermatologist for a recommendation.

Medical cosmetics
Medical cosmetics is a sensible complementary measure in acne therapy. Privat insurances usually bear the costs, if it is prescribed by a doctor or dermatologist. Statutory health insurances may also often bear the costs in severe cases, if prescribed by a doctor or dermatologist, but sometimes this can be more difficult. Perhaps an appropriate therapy can also be carried out by the dermatologist. It is best to obtain advice from the doctor or dermatologist.
Don’t squeeze your spots. More...
It must be very much recommended not to squeeze your spots.

In squeezing, you will very often unwillingly harm the skin around the spot, which can lead to an infection and may leave scars. Besides, most of the sebum will not be discharged to the outside, but will be pressed into the surrounding tissues where it causes further inflammations. Please consult a doctor, dermatologist or a cosmetician instead.

Acne therapy needs some time. Patience pays! More...
Please bring some patience: acne therapy doesn’t usually show its effect immediately, but only after some weeks.

Then you will experience a remarkable improvement of your skin condition.
Skin is as individual as every human being, so your doctor or dermatologist will have to try out different medications before he/she finds the adequate product for you. It would be good if you could bring up the patience for this process as well. In the end you will notice that it was worth the effort.

Acne and sun. More...
Excessive sunbathing can damage the skin. Enjoyed in a moderate way, however, sunlight can be helpful in acne:

Sunlight can have an anti-inflammatory influence on the skin, and on a lightly tanned ski, the acne is less visible. Please inform yourselves on the pages "Skin and sunlight" on how to enjoy sunlight in a reasonable and healthy way.

  In the learning module "Sunlight", you can read in detail how you can enjoy the sun in a reasonable way.

Take care of your personal wellbeing. More...

Puberty is a time of transition from childhood to adulthood and a time of development of one’s own personality.

This is at the same time an exciting and stressful phase in your life, and especially when you have acne episodes it is very important that you develop a positive relationship to yourself. Pursue hobbies and interests, cultivate friendships and other contacts.

Sometimes it really helps to speak openly about your situation and your feelings with your family and friends – you will feel less lonely and ashamed: other adolescents are in the same situation and share your feelings.

If you feel very bad, it may be a good idea to consult a professional person, for example to talk to a psychologist about your feelings. This may be very helpful.

 

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