Posts Tagged ‘scars’

How to Treat Acne Successfully

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Acne is horrible. However, it’s not something that cannot be tackled. There are heaps of acne skin care products around. We can pigeonhole acne skin care products into 3 broad categories -

* Preventive or general acne skin care products; * Over-the-counter, specialised acne skin care items; * Prescription only acne skin care products.

The general acne skin care products are the ones that are used as an acne-prevention measure. These include cleansers, make-up removers and similar products that help avoid acne. In the real sense, these acne skin care products are those that should be part of your daily routine anyway. However, some of these are more oriented to work like an acne skin care product.

These acne skin care products act against the reasons for acne e.g. limiting the production of sebum/oil and avoiding the congestion of skin pores. Basically, these acne skin care products inhibit the oil from getting trapped in the skin and hence impede the growth of the bacteria that lead to acne. Broad-spectrum acne skin care items also take in exfoliation products like skin peels. These work by removing dead skin cells, thereby reducing the likelihood of pore-clogging and bacteria increase.

Then there are specialised acne skin care products that are available over-the-counter i.e. without the requirement of a prescription. These include products like vanishing creams which remove the extra oil from the skin. Most of these acne skin care items are based on benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid, both of which are the enemies of bacteria (and hence acne too). You must start with a product that has a lower concentration of benzoyl peroxide (e.g. 5%) and see how your skin responds to it.

Alpha-hydroxy-acid based moisturizers are also common as acne skin care items. You may have to test a few, before you find the acne skin care product that is most effective for you. If nothing seems to work, you should contact a skincare specialist.

Prescription-only acne skin care products are the ones that are prescribed by a dermatologist. These include ointments that can be rubbed on the affected area or oral antibiotics or just any topical medication. Dermatologists might also recommend a minor surgical procedure to remove the contents of pustules. However, never try to squeeze or do this by yourself, it can lead to the everlasting damage of your skin.

Your doctor could also prescribe a hormone-based treatment (since hormonal changes are also known to cause acne). Such acne skin care items are known to be very effective in some cases. So, with all those acne skin care items, combatting acne is really not all that arduous.

Are you having trouble treating acne scars? If you are or you’d like to know more about acne, please go to our website called http://treating-acne-scars.com

Are Acne Scars Permanent?

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Acne scars are a sad reminder of the having suffered pimples or even acne previously. They are unbearable because of their apparent longevity and their non-complimentary appearance. Normally speaking, acne scars are quite hard to treat, but tissue regeneration is not unusual these days with all the fantastic technological developments.

In general terms, by acne scars, we are referring to the healed lesions caused by an acne breakout. While most scars are temporary and disappear naturally in time, those from the more severe forms of acne can become permanent.

Acne scarring can be prevented if the patient sees a doctor when it is in the incipient stage, particularly if nodules or cysts accompany the red pustules on the skin’s surface. If the breakouts of acne have marked your skin, you will have to approach the issue from a different perspective, which usually involves surgery.

Laser resurfacing is one possibility of removing the damaged skin areas and stimulating the natural regeneration of the tissue beneath. The procedure requires only local anaesthesia and can last between a few minutes and an hour depending on the extent of the damage.

Fractional laser therapy is one of the most recent forms of eliminating acne scars. It involves surgical intervention at deep skin layers. The treatment is better than both dermabrasion and laser resurfacing in terms of quality and involves a very reduced healing period. Nevertheless, fractional laser therapy lies within the reach of only those few fortunate people, who can afford it, since it is the most expensive acne therapy currently available.

It can be that other sessions are required to improve the condition of the upper layers of skin, before they can start the deep level treatment of the acne scar. The doctor may inject collagen into the scarring in order to raise the normal skin level or she/he may suggest micro-dermabrasion for the same reason. Trying to perform chemical peels for acne treatment at home could be a bad idea given the risk of aggravating the condition by irritating the scars even more.

As for the types of acne scars, they can be classified by the way they look. Scarring can result because of an increase of tissue or due to a loss of tissue They both have an adverse impact on the way the face looks. Specialists’ evaluation of the nature of the scars is a very important factor for the decision of adopting one type of treatment or another.

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