Acne Care

No one factor causes acne. As physicians understand it, acne happens when oil (sebaceous) glands come to life around puberty, when these glands are stimulated by male hormones that are produced in the adrenal glands of both boys and girls. The oil glands, which are located just beneath the skin, continuously produce and secrete oil through openings in the skin. The oil lubricates and protects the skin. Under certain circumstances, cells that are close to the openings of the oil glands block the openings. This causes a buildup of oil underneath the skin. Bacteria, which live in everyone's skin but generally mind their own business, feast on this oil, multiply, and cause the surrounding tissues to become inflamed.

Medical Cosmetic Center offers many acne treatment options:

Topical (externally applied) Antibiotics and Antibacterials: These include erythromycin, clindamycin, sulfacetamide, and azelaic acid.
Retinoids: Retin-A has been around for years, and has become milder and gentler while still maintaining its effectiveness. Newer retinoids include Differin and Avita. These are especially helpful for unclogging pores.
Oral antibiotics: We typically start oral treatment with tetracycline or one of the related "cyclines," such as doxycycline and minocycline. Other antibiotics that are useful for treating acne are cefadroxil, amoxicillin, and sulfa drugs.
Oral contraceptives: Modern contraceptives, which are low in estrogen to promote safety, have little effect on acne one way or the other. One pill, Ortho Tri-Cyclen, has been shown to help acne, but its effectiveness is only modest.
Isotretinoin (Accutane): Isotretinoin is a wonderful treatment for severe, resistant acne however there are many side effects. The most important issue with isotretinoin is contraception. Women of childbearing age must be sure they cannot become pregnant while taking this drug or for one month after stopping it, because of risk of birth defects.
Cortisone Injections: To make large pimples and cysts flatten out fast, we will inject them with a form of cortisone.
Photodynamic Acne Treatment: This treatment combines acid and light energy delivered via both laser and non-laser light to produce rapid results for clearing acne lesions. There is some redness and skin peeling for a couple of days following the treatment. We recommend 2-3 treatments at 2-3 week intervals to obtain optimal results.
Microdermabrasion with and Acne Peel: Microdermabrasion is a nice surface repair treatment. When combined with an acne peel the treatment becomes more effective.

Laser Acne Treatments

Laser treatments can usually lead to a lessening of the amount of required antibiotics. Laser treatments can improve not only the inflamed acne, but also leads to improvement in acne scars. There are 2 basic groups of acne treating lasers. One group of technologies inhibits the growth of the bacteria that is involved in acne lesions. The other group of lasers shrink the sebaceous oil glands that play a pivotal role in acne. We will use the laser we feel most appropriate for the particular patient’s condition. Most patients require approximately 5 monthly treatments to see the desired improvement. Periodic re-treatments will be required as acne flares.

Laser Acne Treatments are not painful and are generally described as the same sensation of a rubber band. For those who find this uncomfortable, a numbing topical anesthetic cream can be used.

Most patients can stay on their topical medications while going through laser treatments. In general, less antibiotic treatment by mouth will be required. Often microdermabrasion when combined with acne laser treatment, leads to even better results.

For moderate to severe acne Photodynamic Therapy works very well with quick results.

Acne treatments using Photodynamic Therapy is the most recent advance in acne therapy. The Medical Cosmetic Center is the first facility in the area to offer this revolutionary acne treatment. We have been getting excellent results treating men and women of all ages from all over the tri-state area. Photodynamic acne treatment involves the application of a photosensitizing agent, which is then activated. This results in significant improvement in moderate to severe cystic acne.

Photodynamic Therapy for acne involves three mechanisms of action against acne. The treatment inactivates the bacteria that trigger acne, exfoliates the skin to unclog pores, and the most exciting mechanism is that the treatment shuts down the sebaceous glands in the skin. This is exciting because sebaceous glands are the root cause in the formation of acne so it has a long lasting effect even on severe acne.

This acne therapy can even work in patients who have failed accutane. Accutane also targets the sebaceous gland but accutane has fairly toxic side effects. This therapy is a very safe alternative to accutane treatment.