Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Acne Treatment Initial Symptoms

By Norman Sanchez

At some point in our lives, we learned that everyone's body responds in its own unique way to medications. During flu season, for instance, one person may get drowsy from their medication while another nauseated from the same one. This exact phenomenon also applies to acne treatments.

You have one group of acne suffers who successfully beat the disorder within several weeks, using topical prescriptions like Tazorac or Differin. Then you have those that continue to suffer from breakouts up until the fourth of fifth month of treatment, whereafter they finally get clear skin. As we can clearly see, it is really dependent on the particular person afflicted with the disease. Skin sensitivity is one of those pesky things that can make treating acne a nightmare. Sensitive skin can respond very unfavorably to strong medications, adopting a red tint or burning uncontrollably. Others experience no symptoms whatsoever. Usually, a dermatologist cannot make a definitive distinction as to how sensitive your skin is, so only experimentation will reveal how you will react to the medication.

Our skin is not accustomed to coming into contact with harsh products. To be fair, we do use a good amount of soaps and face washes that can have irritating chemicals. However, these don't compete with an initial run of a powerful topical cream like Tretinoin. It is not so much harsh ingredients in prescription creams that trigger an initial adverse reaction, but rather the fact that our skin has not been allowed to properly acclimate to the medication. Symptoms like burning, skin redness, and peeling can arise. Obviously, these can impact how we conduct our daily activities. After all, how many people are comfortable walking about with a red tint on their face.

Your dermatologist may have shared some advice to ease initial symptoms. Common suggestions are to spread about application periods so that the skin can grow accustomed to the treatment. When starting out, you should apply your topical medication once every other day or once every two days. When you feel your skin is ready for more (i.e. it is no longer peeling or taking on a red tint), you can increase the frequency of your usage.

Sensitive skin sometimes appears to be the factor when in fact the person failed to abide by the dermatologist's instructions. A common mistake is forgetting to apply moisturizer. Remember, acne topicals can be incredibly drying. The instructions provided to you should be reviewed carefully. This will drastically reduce the likelihood of future issues. Another thing to remember is to consult your dermatologist before you experiment with new products or routines. Things like using more than a pea-sized amount of medication, for instance, may sound good in theory but in reality are problematic. A dermatologist knows this will cause more irritation without benefit to the patient. Be open with your dermatologist as this will ensure optimal treatment results.

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