Acne.org Products
Hi, I am new to this forum but I'm hoping it can help me out. I live in Connecticut. I'm 22 yrs old in college and I have had consistent acne since I was 16 years old (6 years now). I have seen dermatologists when I was younger but haven't in the past 3 years. My acne fluctuates from mild/moderate/ to severe and right now its getting to severe for no apparent reason. Over the past 6 years my clear skin has progressively become damaged looking, my pores are large, my skin is oily and red, and my scars continue to get worse. I Have literally tired everything you can possibly think of in the past 6 years. (diets, topical antibiotics, Retin-A creams, oral anitbiotics, Skin B-5, tee tree oil remedies, rosacea sulfur meds, sysilic acid, benzyl peroxide, and even accutane when I was 18-19). Out of all these meds accutane seems to work the best but obviously comes with the sides and unknown longterm effects on the rest of the body. The acne is getting really really annoying and its starting to ruin my life, self-esteem, confidence, girls, grades, social life at age 22 when I'm surrounded in college with beautiful women with Crystal clear skin.
So enough with my awesome skin, can anyone help me find a really good Doctor who specializes with chronic acne (most likely hormonal/genetic), scars, and or prescribes accutane? Every single doctor I have been to in my area seems to not have a clue on what is wrong with my skin, its quite clear antibiotics and other topical meds only make my skin worse...I may need to find an endocrinologist who specializes in skin conditions but no sites/search engines online seem to have anything like this in Ct. If anyone knows of any top skin specialists for Acne please let me know! I'm in Connecticut but I'm willing to Drive outstate as long as its not too far ie..cali fl canda mexico..
Thank you
You should not need to leave the state to see a good dermatologist. You can call around to different dermatology offices. Ask if they prescribe accutane and they will be able to tell you. also your GP should be able to direct you to a dermatologist that has a good background.
Just a thought though, you seem to think your acne is hormonally related. If that's the case accutane will not keep you clear, you need to figure out your hormones and accutane will not do that. Consider getting on spiroaclatone there are tons of forums here that explain it or just a simple spiro and ance google search. I have been on spiro for a year now and have had amazing success. I did accutane 2 years ago now and was clear for only 4 months and I broke out again. I started spiro and haven't looked back since. I'm clear and Hyperpigmentaion is pretty well all taken care of.
Spiro is prefect for hormonal acne. It will not clear your current acne but it WILL stop new hormonal acne from forming in the future. So you will need to treat your current acne with SA or BP a topical of some sort. Since antibiotics have not helped you should hopefully have better success with topicals. Maybe even just witch hazel. I love that stuff and it helps keep my pores clear.
For spiro dermatologists sometimes prescribe I personally have my prescription from my obgyn who was more than happy to prescribe it. Endocronigists also prescribe, but getting an appt with one isn't always the easiest thing to come by. Unless your doctor has referred you with tested hormonal imbalances. Green gable has great posts about spiro that are very informative. Plus spiro is a much much safer choice and a much better choice for hormonal acne.
Ask around...talk with office staff and ask for recommendations of derms who specialize in adult acne versus teen acne. This is hard to find...took me forever. Ask your doctor for allergy testing and perhaps hormone testing...demand it. Discovering your allergies and eating a diet made for you will reduce inflammation and your acne. See my post in this section on Diet for Resistant Adult Acne. This will help...hard to do but makes a real difference.
Ask your derm to modify treatment approach. I can't do a topical BP but can tolerate a BP cleanser. Cleocin-T topical seems to be mild eneough but other topicals are too harsh...you get my drift. You may need a multi-prong approach...meaning diet + topical + oral to kick out the acne. I have found monthly microdermabrasions to be incredible for opening pores and letting meds works better. Spendy but essential.
Spiro is great but guys can't take it so you need to find other ways to help keep your androgen levels down. Meditation, daily walks, de-stress techniques like yoga breathing, avoiding all foods that aggravate hormones like dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt), red meats, etc.
Try to live more like cultures that don't get acne...read about this on the net...how they eat, how they live their daily lives (simple living). This will help too. There is a reason more and more adults are getting acne and it is due to our industrialized high stress way of living...our bodies get inflammed...and hence more acne.
Hope this helps!