Most people who don't have acne who see people with just mild acne would probably notice they have pimples. So they would say that person has acne. Now if that person has moderate acne... they would say that person's acne is pretty bad.
But for those of us who have acne and know whats its like to have it, we know how a few pimples or so is mild acne. Most of us could tell the difference between whats mild and moderate/
However, i was always confused what is the difference between moderate and severe acne.
For example when you see a person with 20+ pimples are they are not cystic pimples, then we can say its moderate acne. Am i right or wrong on this?
Now if they have 20+ pimples that are cystic... do we say thats severe acne?
What if someone has mild acne around a few parts of their face but then have 3-4 big spots that are cystic pimples that are like the size of a dime on certain areas of the face. What if they have just 1 or 2 of those really nasty spots. Is that considered severe acne since they are cysts? Like if you have just a couple of them on your face that are cystic acne, is your acne considered severe or is it just moderate to severe? Or is it severe on one side of the face and mild on the others?
Its like the other side of your face isn't bad at all but then one side has quite a few problem spots but those spots are huge and cystic.
What is that considered?
http://www.acneandskinremedies.com/Cystic-Acne.html
For example if you look at this, they classify this as cystic acne. But would that be considered severe acne?
For me, any cystic/inflamed acne is severe or moderately severe. Anything that takes serious measures to get rid off. Doesn't matter how much of your face is covered with acne, if you keep on getting cysts and painful deep bumps all the time and it tends to leave scars, it's severe.
I had mostly one cheek and a particular place on that cheek breaking out. It went on for 8 years, regularly, on the same place, painful cysts there month after month. Sometimes up to 5-7 deep breakouts and cysts at the same time, on one area of my face. It left bad scarring and the skin there badly needs resurfacing. Would someone say it's not severe enough because it's not spread?
I've actually wondered this myself! 3 years ago when I went to a dermatologist, he rated my acne as moderate and I thought he was crazy. He then later explained that he did this for two reasons. Because of my age, I was 22 at the time, and because although I only had 3 pimples, one was a cyst. He said that since I was 22 years old my acne was persistent (I didn't agree with him on that since I only started getting pimples maybe 6 months before) and the fact that I had a cyst. Which I thought was ridiculous. I didn't have cystic acne. Sure I had a cyst at the time, but that was only the second cyst I ever had. Which I explained to him, and he replied "so far"..he was actually pretty mean lol. He then tried to get me to go on Accutane and I was like are you nuts! My acne is mild. I normally have 2 tiny pimples on my face at a given time, I want a cream, not accutane! I obviously no longer go to him and now go to another doctor in his office. But my point is, he rated my acne as moderate, and said it was cystic, but how? Even since then, I've maybe had 2 or 3 cysts. I think the last time I had a cyst was this time last year, and it was gone within 5 days. Now is my acne then cystic? Since I do get them from time to time? And if it is cystic, is my acne severe? Because I rarely get pimples now, so it would be almost ridiculous to say my acne is severe. I honestly, don't even consider myself to have acne anymore. I consider myself to have acne prone skin since I occasionally get a pimple here and there. I've also seen people who have perfect skin get cysts. Somebody I work with actually has a huge cyst on his neck right now(one of the biggest ive seen), but his skin is crystal clear besides that. That's why I don't really agree with rating people with cysts as severe all the time. If you constantly have cysts, then yes its cystic acne and it's severe. But having 5 cysts your whole life isn't cystic acne, is it?