Hi everyone. Last year I started using the acne.org regimen because of cosmetic induced acne/acne cosmetica.
I had hundreds of blocked pores that hardly ever came to a head (except for a handful of pimples) and lots of red marks. My chin was very chapped, red and uneven. It looked a mess. I started using The Regimen and it cleared within a few months. So then I stopped using the regimen and went back to my normal habits once clear. I thought everything was great and my skin wouldn't go back there ever again. WRONG. Fast forward today and I'm sitting here with exactly the same problem.
I know what you're going to say. I fell back into old habits, never looked after my skin. It's true, I didn't but it seems to me that without The Regimen my skin is doomed. Will I have to live doing the regimen for the rest of my existence unless I want my skin to be a bumpy, red, mess?
I'm on The Regimen again and have been using it for about a week and can already see a difference. My skin is still ugly and uneven but I think with persistence I will get there. When my skin goes back to normal, a few months down the line, will I be able to switch to a regular skincare routine without my skin flaring up? How do I maintain 'good' skin after I am clear?
Will it be The Regimen forever?
Acne lesions typically recur for years, and so acne is nowadays considered to be a chronic disease. It has been shown that microcomedones significantly decrease during therapy but rebound almost immediately after discontinuation of a topical retinoid. Hence, the strategy for treating acne today includes an induction phase followed by a maintenance phase, and is further supported by adjunctive treatments and/or cosmetic treatments. Therefore, a maintenance therapy to reduce the potential for recurrence of visible lesions should be considered as a part of routine acne treatment. However, it is important to emphasize the lack of definitions surrounding the topic. One possible definition is: Maintenance therapy can be defined as the regular use of appropriate therapeutic agents to ensure that acne remains in remission.
Since 1973 it has clearly been shown that, after a controlled intervention phase with oral antibiotic and topical tretinoin, patients continuing to receive the topical retinoid in a controlled maintenance phase experience a significantly lower relapse rate. Several controlled trials have now been performed with topical retinoids to show the value of maintenance treatment, with a topical retinoid decreasing the number and preventing the development of microcomedones in different severity grades of acne.
To date, adapalene regimens have been most extensively studied as maintenance treatments for acne in four controlled trials (one on micro comedones) and two uncontrolled trials.
