Does Dan's regime work well on cystic acne?

[ypA81 0]

I'm a 26 year old female and ever since I was young I always had acne.

I was on Accutane when I was in high school, then I used Proactiv for 3 years, and Sulfur 10% for 1 year. Now I have moderate acnes all over my face and about 20 huuuuge cystic acnes on my jawline.

My dermatologist recommended Retin-A, but would Dan's regime work well on my skin too?

Would it make my acne really worse in the beginning?

Help!!

[greentea101 0]

Im not sure but I just know that when I first started the DKR back in october 1st, 2007 and now I am at the third month... When I first started I had like 6 Cystic on my left and right jawline... and within weeks, It was all gone... but the sad part is that It left me with red marks... now im 97% clear with red marks but they are fading pretty fast because I had incorporated the Neutrogena AHA 8% moisturizer into my regime.... but make sure you are used to the bp and doing at least 2 month of DKR before introducing some AHA...

Hope I helped with ur anwser..if not sorry about it...

good luck and keep it up.. : D

[TheLinkster007 0]

I had pretty severe cystic acne and I am on my 4th month of DKR.

I am proud to say its cleared up most of my acne. I had about, what, 50 major pimples? Now ive got only got around 5 or less.

But the annoying thing is, thats 5 cysts. I hardly ever get simple whiteheads. No. It always has to be a full blown deep-in-the-face cyst. So Ive got 5 of these at the moment.

Good news is DKR has fixed most of my face, but I can see that I am going to need something powerful such as accutane in the coming months, because these cysts are scarring me.

[Wynne 131]

Hello and welcome to acne.org!

I've approved your image and thus can comment on your acne. It looks like you have moderate inflammatory acne so yes, the DKR will work nicely for you. You have a few cysts (not many) around your jawline and neck. That can indicate a hormonal component to your acne; check with a derm or doctor about birth control or other hormonal controls that may help you beat your acne.

Are you currently using any type of scrub? If so, please stop that ASAP! Scrubs can actually increase breakouts because they can scratch the skin and allow bacteria to multiply rapidly...thus causing more acne. Your breakout has the pattern of a scrub breakout; that was my first thought.

First suggestions:

Use a mild, gentle cleanser such as Cetaphil Sensitive Skin Antibacterial Bar.

Gently wash your face only twice a day. More frequent washing is only detrimental (unless of course you get dirty playing sports or gardening or what have you). You can use a totally clean washcloth for the gentle exfoliative effect, or your clean hands to wash your face.

Use only warm or cool water when washing and rinsing. Hot water strips the skin of moisture and can damage the skin, potentially leading to more breakouts.

Start the DKR! Follow conscientiously and you should see improvement within a few months.

[cool as kim deal 47]

The DKR will probably help clear up your acne to large degree, but maybe not 100%. You won't really know until you try, though. You might break out worse than usual during your first few weeks on the regimen, but maybe not--it's a totally individual thing. I did not have any bad initial breakout, just my familiar old normal ones. Birth control, oral antibiotics, or something like spironoloactone would certainly improve your likelihood of success, so you might want to talk to a doctor about getting a prescription for one of those. It looks like you have fairly persistent inflammatory acne and some red marks from old pimples, so I'd definitely recommend incorporating in an alpha hydroxy acid lotion into your routine once you've adjusted to the BP (maybe 5 weeks in or so), if you choose to start the DKR. One thing I want you to be careful of if you start the DKR is using the BP on your neck, though. The skin on your neck is much more sensitive than the skin on your face, generally, so you have to go really slow with the BP there, slower than on the rest of your face. Don't use too much too fast! If you're treating acne all over your face and part of your neck, you might want to have the final amount of BP that you work up to be more like 1 1/3 finger lengths of gel instead of just 1 finger, too, but take your time getting there

I found the photo galleries of two Acne.org members who had more severe acne and had pretty good results on the regimen to be very inspirational while I was clearing up, too. They are the lovely ladies celebration and starlogic, and you might find their ups and downs and eventual outcomes to be interesting to look through. Their photos are in reverse chronological order, I think, btw.

[Briansgirl7983 1]

[ypA81 0]

Thanks for all your replies!!

I started the DKR yesterday. yey

Wish me good luck!!

I'm going to create a gallery for myself. old pictures when I was on Proactiv, Sulfacet-R, and Carley's Clear and Smooth. It's very intersting how my skin gets so good when i'm on medication and 1000x worse when I stop it.

by the way I hated Carley's Clear and Smooth the MOOOOOOOOOOST!