I'm 18 and a male. I saw the dermatologist and he looked at my skin on my face and said 80% of it's superficial and on the skin, the rest are cysts. He prescribed me a cetaphil cleanser, vitamin a cream for the treatment and antibiotics to keep the acne un-inflamed.

He said that won't clear my cysts though and for that I need to come back in 4 months and see how well my acne is going and he might give me roaccutane for my cysts.

I am literally so anxious, depressed and lost. I feel as if now that the only way to be 100% clear skin is if I take accutane. And I am extremely nervous that I will get deadly or permanent side effects.

I want to know is there any other thing the dermatologist can prescribe me or do later on for my cysts? or is accutane the way to go? And if you take accutane do most people only have to take 1 course? or do most people have to again?

Should I see how the cleanser and vitamin a cream with the anitbiotics go? could they in fact clear my cystic acne as well?

He said benzoyle peroxide creams wont work because it's beyond that.

And in regards to the antibiotics I've heard it can make your acne really bad and cause other things, I have no fricken idea what to do

He probably shouldn't have said that benzoyl peroxide wouldn't work because I had really really bad acne and my regimen included benzoyl peroxide and it totally cleared me up. There is a link in my signature to prove how well it worked for me

Yeah, hm :/. I'm just wondering because I heard that antibiotics are only good when you're taking them but when you stop, they come back? is this the case?

I think you should use everything the derm gave you, because it's not necessarily true that it won't clear your cysts. People's skin responds in different ways to different methods. Who knows, maybe it'll really help. I get mild cysts right around that time of the month and I feel my Epiduo (BP + adapalene) helps reduce inflammation and speed up healing time. You could also try icing your cysts to reduce inflammation.

Accutane cures acne for some people, but not at all. Others find that their acne comes back after they're done with their Accutane course. Idk, it's up to you and your derm, but I'd say Accutane should be an absolute last resort. It is a pretty serious treatment (it's chemotherapy) and can have various side effects. On the other hand, many people have done Accutane with no serious consequences.

Antibiotics helped my acne for a while. I'm still on them now, but I don't think they really work anymore. Antibiotics gradually stop working because the bacteria in your body becomes resistant to them. They didn't make me break out any worse once they stopped working.

Yeah, hm . I'm just wondering because I heard that antibiotics are only good when you're taking them but when you stop, they come back? is this the case?

I was on antibiotics for a good three months and it did clear my acne. After about 10 months of being clear it all came back though. Very frustrating. And then I went back on antibiotics, but the second time around it didn't work as well as it did the first time. You build a resistance to it and in the end it probably won't work anymore.

I'm 41 and first took accutane in my early 20's. I think they really use it as a last attempt. I got about 8 years spot free, then I took it again when I was 30, now I may have to go on it again. Try what he says first, accutane made me feel like I had flu. You can't have alcohol and my lips went huge and scabby as did my nose. Don't be in a rush to go on it.

Thanks for all the answers, I defiantly will take it step by step. I'm just wondering as my last question about antibiotics for my acne, I heard this story that a guy took antibiotics for his acne, it cleared and what not but it came back and then he took accutane and that also didn't work and it turned out to be a build up of candida due to him taking antibiotics?

Could taking antibiotics cause further acne problems such as a candida build up or anything else that can potentially just make this whole acne problem go past adulthood?

So I had really severe sudden acne, and I waited too long to get the proper treatment because I was convinced by all the reading that it was food or my stomach or candida or whatever. I now have severe scarring that will take years and thousands to fix. Find a derm you trust most importantly, and follow their prescription. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, but don't blindly jump into anything either. If your acne is infected, antibiotics will help. If you get a pimple after eating a night of pizza, maybe you just need to wash your face or stop eating cheese. But if. You have severe acne you need to treat it medically, unless you want a lifetime of misery because of scarring and low self worth. Just my two cents.

Personally I'm not a fan of antibiotics at all, however, if your acne really is 80% superficial it's likely they will clear you up pretty well and if not, the fact that you have at least tried antibiotics without success will make your chances of going on accutane higher. I've used various antibiotics such as doxycyline, minocyline and erythomycin and I found that after my use of doxy for over 6 months every antibiotic I used would only work for about a month before making my skin worse. Antibiotics are a great "bandaid" solution but they don't actually fix the internal problem which is causing the overproduction of your sebaceous glands they simply kill the bacteria that grows as a result. In saying that, I would still give the antibiotics a go as they probably will clear up your acne and if your acne returns when you finish them I would seriously recommend acctuane (if that is what you want), because after long term use in one antibiotic it's likely you will become relatively resistant to those in the same category. Good luck!

I really don't want to take the antibiotics now, I read that it can create some sort of super strand of bacteria or what ever. Would just cleansing with a cetaphil and using my vitamin a cream(he said it reduces the oil production) and the antibiotics was just to help reduce the inflimation...

Does vitamin a cream generally work well by itself, would I need a cleanser?