Acne Treatment

There are many treatments available if you suffer from acne. There are even some that tend to help, even those that are not scientifically proven that they work. Most treatments do not tend to have any affect on the person until after the first two weeks, but usually begin to decrease the Acne within and around the three month period. If you see a commercial and they promise you that the treatment begins to work within the first week or even two weeks, you will be very disappointed.

Cortisone bursts can help immensely with in a short period of time and even other types of acne treatment can help, but not greatly and not all active spots. There are four ways in which general treatments tend to work; hormonal manipulation, killing p. acnes (bacteria), anti-inflammatory affects, and normalizing shedding of the skin into the pores to prevent blockage.

More than one treatment at a time can greatly reduce the severity and amount of Acne that you suffer from. But, the downside of these sorts of treatments are that the side effects can be so much greater than that of a topical, over the counter cream. With the drugs with greater side effects, a close look is taken and monitoring may even need to be tagged on. Consulting with a doctor and or dermatologist is the best way to see what is right for you. There are a number of treatments which have proven successful, some of them being; Topical bactericidals (containing benzoyl peroxide), oral antibiotics (taken by mouth), topical antibiotics (such as creams for the skin), hormonal treatments (steriods, contraception pills), oral retinoids, topical retinoids, phototherapy (blue and red light), Laser treatment and photodynamic therapy.

There are some less commonly used treatments such as heat and tea tree oil but some claim that they work just as well. As of 2007, they have been conducting research to try and map out the Propionibacterium acnes bacteriophage genome. This treatment will allow doctors and scientists to get down, literally, to the core of this widespread problem and treat it so there are no long term and/or significant problems belonging to Acne any longer.