more teen acne questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know that there are bad stories about accutane, but millions have taken it safely-- I know multiple adults, including myself, who have told me they were on accutane with no long term, negative effect. I will do accutane for my DS before I put him on antibiotics.

I agree completely but do dermatologists go straight to Accutane?

I’m 20:34 and our dermatologist laid out all the possible treatment plans and let us choose. With our first child, we went the conservative route - topicals and antibiotics for two years before we realized we had just wasted time. At that point, we started our son on Accutane and he was done within six months. No more acne. We learned our lesson and with child #2, went straight to Accutane. (Should note - both kids had cystic acne). We’ll go straight to it again with our third child, if need be. Our dermatologist leaves it up to us, which I appreciate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids do not have it severely but their dermatologist prescribed a combination of accuzone (benzyl peroxide higher strength) and adapalene .3% which works well. She said that the combination is important and one without the other does not work well.

We haven't done the antibiotic but I have read that it is very targeted and only works on the bacteria that kills acne unlike the other antibiotics that you get for a sinus or other infection which have a broader range of what they kill.

Which antibiotic are you talking about? My daughter was prescribed regular ol doxycycline for acne. Is there a specific acne antibiotics? I am super confused by this statement.

+1
My daughter is also taking doxycycline and has seen no results - has it worked for your daughter? I’m planning on telling the doctor we want to stop. She’s been taking antibiotics for too long. We may start her on Accutane this summer and just be done with it.

My son is on slow release doxycycline and it's been working like a charm. My DH had terrible cystic acne for more than 10 years that scarred his face. Only Accutane finally helped him. DS is lucky in that he doesn't have cystic acne.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had any experience with blue light therapy? I’m taking my daughter for her first session tomorrow. Wondering how effective it is.

[Anonymous]

My daughter’s dermatologist said she is more concerned about long term antibiotics than accutane. I would try a new dermatologist. Accutane works quickly and well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter’s dermatologist said she is more concerned about long term antibiotics than accutane. I would try a new dermatologist. Accutane works quickly and well.

My derm said the same. We are ready to ditch all these antibiotics and topicals, which are only a temporary fix.

[Anonymous]

anyone ever used sodium sulfacetamide wash?

[Anonymous]

I am the OP and the regimen the new derm put my son on is the sulfa wash plus the tazorac cream mentioned earlier in the thread. After 2 weeks we haven’t seen any improvement but the derm said it takes up to 8 weeks to see results.

[Anonymous]

Approximately how long do you need to be on Accutane?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Approximately how long do you need to be on Accutane?

6 ish months

[Anonymous]

Anyone familiar with Saysara (antibiotic)? Is it effective? Any issues? That is what the derm is recommending for my DD. The topical treatments (even OTC Differin) makes her face look like someone took a blowtorch to it for days. It's painful and she feels terrible looking that way. So we stopped that.

[Anonymous]

Our son was having terrible breakouts and we were just about to go to Accutane. He had one cystic acne pimple that put a hole in his face. However, a friend suggested Mario Badescu products and we decided to give the topicals one more try for a month since the Accutane was available. He used the acne wash, the drying cream (which has sulfur). Yes, he smelled of sulfur (he put it on at night and then less in the AM on certain breakouts). He also used the drying lotion for cystic acne (he could feel the deeper ones coming). We were both surprised that it worked amazingly well and broke the cycle of redness, dryness, more breakouts etc. He never needed the Accutane. He was 15 and is now 19 and everyone comments on his amazing skin. He continues to use the acne wash. He lives at home and is going to a local college. The other night, he asked if I could help him with a cystic pimple coming on his back. It was the first in a very long time. Used the MB drying lotion and it was 1/3 size the next morning and completely gone 2 days later.

Over an 8 month period, he tried Neutrogena, Clinique, Proactive, St. Ives and maybe another topical and was ready to give up. I can only share his experience and I am grateful to my NY friend for suggesting it. I do not work for Mario Badescu, but the products really worked. It did take 5 weeks, but he the improvement was obvious by the end of the first week and by the second week, his face was much calmer and less painful. www.mariobadescu.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Approximately how long do you need to be on Accutane?

6 ish months

It depends on the strength of the prescription. My son was on a low dose for a year. He has a chronic illness and was taking other medications as well. His other doctors recommended a low dose, which the dermatologist was comfortable with as well. After one year, the results were drastic. Unfortunately, he does have some scarring though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our son was having terrible breakouts and we were just about to go to Accutane. He had one cystic acne pimple that put a hole in his face. However, a friend suggested Mario Badescu products and we decided to give the topicals one more try for a month since the Accutane was available. He used the acne wash, the drying cream (which has sulfur). Yes, he smelled of sulfur (he put it on at night and then less in the AM on certain breakouts). He also used the drying lotion for cystic acne (he could feel the deeper ones coming). We were both surprised that it worked amazingly well and broke the cycle of redness, dryness, more breakouts etc. He never needed the Accutane. He was 15 and is now 19 and everyone comments on his amazing skin. He continues to use the acne wash. He lives at home and is going to a local college. The other night, he asked if I could help him with a cystic pimple coming on his back. It was the first in a very long time. Used the MB drying lotion and it was 1/3 size the next morning and completely gone 2 days later.

Over an 8 month period, he tried Neutrogena, Clinique, Proactive, St. Ives and maybe another topical and was ready to give up. I can only share his experience and I am grateful to my NY friend for suggesting it. I do not work for Mario Badescu, but the products really worked. It did take 5 weeks, but he the improvement was obvious by the end of the first week and by the second week, his face was much calmer and less painful. www.mariobadescu.com

Can you share all of the products he used?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our son was having terrible breakouts and we were just about to go to Accutane. He had one cystic acne pimple that put a hole in his face. However, a friend suggested Mario Badescu products and we decided to give the topicals one more try for a month since the Accutane was available. He used the acne wash, the drying cream (which has sulfur). Yes, he smelled of sulfur (he put it on at night and then less in the AM on certain breakouts). He also used the drying lotion for cystic acne (he could feel the deeper ones coming). We were both surprised that it worked amazingly well and broke the cycle of redness, dryness, more breakouts etc. He never needed the Accutane. He was 15 and is now 19 and everyone comments on his amazing skin. He continues to use the acne wash. He lives at home and is going to a local college. The other night, he asked if I could help him with a cystic pimple coming on his back. It was the first in a very long time. Used the MB drying lotion and it was 1/3 size the next morning and completely gone 2 days later.

Over an 8 month period, he tried Neutrogena, Clinique, Proactive, St. Ives and maybe another topical and was ready to give up. I can only share his experience and I am grateful to my NY friend for suggesting it. I do not work for Mario Badescu, but the products really worked. It did take 5 weeks, but he the improvement was obvious by the end of the first week and by the second week, his face was much calmer and less painful. www.mariobadescu.com

Can you share all of the products he used?

My teen has moderate acne on his back, and we have tried a topical antibiotic and benzoyl peroxide. Helps a little but not that much. Will try Mario Badescu today. Has anyone else had luck with this? Also, would you avoid topical antibiotics, ingested antibiotics, accutane, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know there was a post on teen acne recently but I have some different questions. DS has been on a dermatologist prescribed regimen of daily antibiotic plus prescription face creams for almost a year. The dosages have been tweaked about every 3 months in that time because he still has a good amount of acne although his skin has improved. We tried a new dermatologist recently due to dissatisfaction with the progression plus inconvenient geography, and the new dermatologist wants to wean my son off of the antibiotic because she thinks long term use bad, and change up his skin creams and add a sulfur face wash.

I am very worried that his acne will return to its previously high levels if he goes off the antibiotic. To be clear, his skin isn’t perfect by any means while on the antibiotic, but it is about fifty percent better than before he started it. But I would need to go back to the original derm or find a third dermatologist because this new one doesn’t agree with use of antibiotics for acne treatment.

My son wants to try the new regimen - mainly because he doesn’t want to wait for another doctor appt! My husband wants to find a dermatologist who will discuss accutane with us, because he thinks trying different face creams is a waste of time (he used accutane as a teen and said it changed his skin dramatically). I don’t know what to do, but hate the idea of “doctor shopping” and trying to fit in another doctor appointment with school, sports, etc.

Did anyone have success treating fairly bad teen acne with just face creams and facial wash? Or have any other suggestions?

Many thanks. This does a number on my teen’s confidence and I can see scarring already so I want to be proactive about this.

No, we didn't and we tried different regimens for about 2 years. Antibiotics did work but acne came back the minute DC went off it. And the topicals would sometimes work for awhile and then their effectiveness. . . . wore off I guess? Plus DCs skin is sensitive so it was irritating to put a bunch of topicals on. We are on month 4/5 of Accutane and am wishing we did it earlier. It is a HUGE PITA to go to the derm every month, have to go through the paperwork, and everything to do it. But DCs face is so much better. So.Much.Better.