6 replies to this topic

[itsmylife]

A dermatologist (skin specialist) is a qualified medical specialist who, through years of specialty training, has obtained qualifications to specialize in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of skin, nail and hair diseases affecting persons of all ages.

While a general practitioner's practice is not oriented to a specific medical specialty but instead covers a variety of medical problems in patients of all ages.

As stated above, the dermatologist undergoes years of specialty training and hence charges higher for his or her consultation fees.

Some important things to take note for visiting a doctor for your acne condition.

There is no need for you to go to a private best dermatologist in town. Just go to a subsidized, publics clinics or hospitals. I not sure for other skin diseases but for acne, there’s only two things that the doctor will give you, either Antibiotics or Accutane, depending on your condition, so there’s no need to pay an additional hundreds of dollars more in consultation fees. The doctor’s words does not help in acne, only the Antibiotics or Accutane does.

Antibiotics is just antibiotics. It doesn’t matter it is being prescribed by a dermatologist or a general practitioner. It will be effective in killing acne bacteria if you take that particular strain of antibiotics for the first time. Hence, you will find total relief from acne for at least the first few months when you are on antibiotics for the first time.

As for Accutane, it is a patented drug manufacture solely by one company. If you go to a private best dermatologist in town, you still get the same thing as what you get from a highly subsidized public clinic. The only difference is that for private you have to pay a lot more in consultation fees and also you have to pay the full price for the drug which is quite expensive. Most importantly, the consultation will usually last less than 15 minutes.

For the case of Accutane, in most if not all countries, Accutane can only be prescribed by a dermatologist. But there is still no need to got to a private best dermatologist in town, just go to a dermatologist in a subsidized public clinics or hospitals.

Being prescribed Accutane at a private dermatologist will be very expensive, you need to pay much more in consultation fees as well as no subsidy for the drug.

The molecular structure inside each Accutane molecule is the same from the highly subsidized public dermatologist or the best dermatologist in town, manufactured by the same company called Roche, possibly at the same factory also.

This way, you can save a lot more money for future acne scars treatments.

One must understand that antibiotics does not cure acne, only provide temporary relief when you are on the course of antibiotics.

This temporary relief is important, as a lot less scars is being formed compared to not on antibiotics at all.

even if you stop taking that antibiotics and your acne come back.

Yes, that antibiotics is not a cure and that you need to consistently take that antibiotics in order to have relief from your acne until you grow out of acne.

But that antibiotics can at least buy time until you grow out of acne.

To further explain my idea, imagine this scenario for a person with acne, assume that his acne period is from 16 years old to 25 years old.

By acne period, I mean that for this person, from maybe 16 years old to 25 years old, as an illustration, he’s going to have around 20 pimples and 1 cystic acne on average per month, even if he

uses the best and expensive facial cleanser that he can ever find on the market,

using the same facial cleanser as his friend next to him that have flawless complexion, following the exact same lifestyle,

and finally eating the same food as his friend next to him that have flawless complexion.

And assume that genetically he got higher tendencies to have pitted scars or holes.

Think about it, if he uses antibiotics to control his acne from maybe 20 years old to 25 years old, the number of redness or holes(most importantly) on his face is going to be reduced by half compared to him not on it.

Yes, one may argue that the antibiotics doesn’t cure acne, it only provides temporary relief from acne.

But that temporary relief from acne actually means no acne and no holes created during that temporary period of relief and it’s still better than nothing.

Lastly,

Since antibiotics is not a cure, it can only provide temporary relief when you are on it, until you grow out of acne.

be it the antibiotics is being prescribed from a dermatologist or a general practitioner,

why not save yourself not some but actually a lot of money by going to either a polyclinic or public hospital.

And use the money saved for acne scars treatment.

Grow out of acne means like when you are a child or like your parents or grandparents,

when in the absence of antibiotics, just wash your face with some facial cleansers, got eat junk food, you don’t have acne anymore.

[Wynne]

Perhaps in some countries this is true, but it is NOT true in the US. The red tape bull**** of iPledge makes most regular doctors NOT bother even registering to be allowed to prescribe Accutane so you'll have better success in the US with a dermatologist. One can of course ask in advance if your GP can and or will prescribe Accutane for someone who needs it, but most of the time, regular docs will not be able to prescribe it.

[tobias]

This post is ridiculous. Firstly, the accutane patent by roche ran out some years ago. Secondly, many ppl go to private derms b-coz public derms either won't prescribe them accutane or will string out the patient for as long as possible with other treatments first that provide very minimal results. Thirdly, the more antibiotics u pop, the more u become resistant to them.

[JR86]

that, and a lot of GPs don't know what they are doing when it comes to treating acne. or don't think of acne as a serious condition and ignore the patients needs.

[JR86]

there is no such thing as going "private" in america. the health system works differently here than in the uk.

[icedtea1]

great post
i live in canada and all I had to do was go to my GP, and he had no problems prescribing me with the accutane, but by the sounds of it, alot of you guys who go to derma's have to deal with wait times, and ipledge

[JR86]

anyone who is prescribed accutane from any doctor in the united states has to go through ipledge, regardless of if they are a derm or not.