amoxicillin? could anyone please share the effectiveness of this medication. and also, before my derm perscribed it to me, he asked if i was allergic to penicillin b/c this drug is related. i said no, but when i got home, i realized that i didnt know if i was allergic b/c i never needed to take it. do people first figure out if theyre allergic by taking the medicine? and i know that yeast infections is a possible side effect. anyone experience this? thank you all very much for all the help! 
Amoxycillin, I believe is in the Penecillin family of anitbiotics. I'm allergic to Penecillin but not Amoxycillin.
Did your regular GP or your dermatologist prescribe it? Did he/she specifically explain why?
I find there are always doctors who are going to want to push the long term use of antiobiotics for the treatment of acne, while there are others who acknowledge that is not only ineffective for some people but a bad idea.
If you just started going to the Doc for acne, perhaps he is simply working through the steps to find what type of acne you have. Perhaps he thinks it's being triggered by a follicle infection. Maybe he thinks that if he can get the acute bacteria under control, then you can move on to other treatments following.
In order to get to the point where Accutane is recommended, the FDA has really clamped down and requiring Docs to cover ALL their bases prior to advising it's use. Most doctors have always been very careful in that sense anyway, but the FDA has really tightened the reigns in the last year.
Ask your doctor lots of questions, though, whatever cousre of treatment he prescribes, and don't be afraid to tell him if you are against long term use of antibiotics for the treatment of your actne. There are other options, some better than others...
Read the patient information sheet that comes with your Rx when you get home as it tells you exactly how to take the medication as well as possible side effects to be on the lookout for.
no, im not a new patient. and my derm perscribed it to me because of my type of acne. its said to work best if i have topicals and antibiotics since its the inflammatory type. ive been on minocycline for a while. a long while at different dosages paired with various topicals.
Oh, I hate minocin (another name for it) -- I took it in college for several months. It did nothing for my acne and only caused severe chronic yeast infection. Yuk.
That was the last antibiotic I took before going on Accutane when I was about 20.
I had a Derm when we first moved to NC years ago that wanted to put me on a long term antibiotic, Sulfa, and not only did it not work either but I had an allergic reaction to it. He just wanted to put me on another and I never went back. Years later, when we moved to OR and I started seeing the Docs about my acne again, I flat told them no antibiotics.
I take spironolactone -- ask your Doc about it...
Amoxicillin DEFINATELY works for ME.
I discovered it accidentally, taking Amoxicillin for an illness and within about 3 to 4 days I noticed my acne clearing up noticeably, and after taking Amoxicilling for about 7 days I was practically acne free.
My doctor couldn't believe it. She wrote me up for another 7 days of Amoxicillin because I insisted, and my acne stayed away. I didn't get any further refills and my acne came back about a week after stopping.
A couple months later I got another perscription for Amoxicillin from her and again it cleared up. She was curious as to this and so put me on Doxycycline to see if that would work better for whatever reason, but Doxycycline did NOTHING for my acne.
Same results happened about a year later when I had sinus surgery, again being placed on Amoxicillin post-surgery and again my acne notably cleared up about 3 days and virtually was clear in about 7 and remained clear perhaps 3 days after stopping the course of Amoxicillin. Similar to the first doctor, the ENT couldn't believe Amoxicillin cleared up my acne.
...So, as common sense would dictate that there are many causes that may result in one's body producing acne. Maybe Amoxicillin will help you, maybe not. Just try it for a couple weeks. If it works, it is a very inexpensive solution, probably the cheapest. I see the acne solution a bit like women that take hormonal treatment as birth control, doctors seem to play a bit of hit or miss until they find the right birth control that works for that particular woman. So, similarly, you will have to play around until you find what works probably.
In my case, I think it is allergies that somehow causes a moderate acne reaction.
Note, my acne is not bad really, and probably 80% of my "acne" cannot be "popped" like a zit that would produce white goo, so perhaps mine is more like an allergic reaction? I say this because I know it gets worse if I am sleeping on the carpet and I later found via allergy testing that I am allergic to dust mites. Odd thing is that I don't itch nor sneeze nor have runny noses from sleeping on the floor at all, which surprised the allergist. Another odd note in my case is that my acne bumps seem to stay perpetually in the same pores too (unless I take Amoxicillin). Sometimes 10% Benzoil Peroxide helps me a little (over the counter products like Clearisil, Oxy, etc.), but nothing compared to what Amoxicillin does.
Oh, another person commented on Spironolactone - be warned, if you are a MALE taking high doses or long-term dosing this can cause gynocomastia (spelling) which is a SWELLING of your AREOLA around your NIPPLES, which is also a bit painful and not attractive on a man. It takes a long time for your body to naturally recover from this after stopping spironolactone. Surgery to remove the "lumps" is not covered by most insurances for men (but often is a covered procedure for women, a sexist policy in my view).
I've heard of Amoxicillin being prescribed for acne. I took it for a tooth infection and it cleared my acne - almost over night.
Be sure to take a high potency probiotic with this to prevent yeast infections (available at health food stores and the best are refridgerated) and keep an eye out for the amoxocillin rash. It looks like flesh colored tiny bumps which may appear in patches. If you should develop this (and you may not) check with your derm. Good luck!
I was prescribed amoxyl for an infection and i found out that it cleared up my acne completely in 3 days. Problem was I had an allergic reaction on the 5th day of taking the stuff and broke out in a huge rash covering almost my entire body. Needless to say, i stopped taking the amoxyl and now a week later my face is back to where it was. Does anyone know of anything that is similar to amoxyl that would be available either via prescription or over the counter? I was amazed at how great my skin looked just one week ago and would love to have it like that permanently!
I was prescribed amoxyl for an infection and i found out that it cleared up my acne completely in 3 days. Problem was I had an allergic reaction on the 5th day of taking the stuff and broke out in a huge rash covering almost my entire body. Needless to say, i stopped taking the amoxyl and now a week later my face is back to where it was. Does anyone know of anything that is similar to amoxyl that would be available either via prescription or over the counter? I was amazed at how great my skin looked just one week ago and would love to have it like that permanently!
my derma perscribed it to me as well and within a few days my acne has almost completely cleared up! but i do have some questions. she perscribed me 1000mg to be taken once a day, but ive read on other sites that the reccomended dose is 875mg max or 500mg 2 times a day, is this correct, the amount she has perscribed me? i also want to know is it alright for me to take this on a permantent basis. i dont ever want my acne to come back, ive been dealing with it for 15 years now and i have finally found something that works great. i just want to know if its safe to take this much for many years or not. 
> perscribed me 1000mg to be taken once a day,> other sites that the reccomended dose is 875mg max or 500mg 2 times a day,
> is it alright for me to take this on a permantent basis.
I am on 500mg 2x daily. I suppose 1000mg 1x a day is effectively the same.
I am male, so don't have the vaginal yeast infection concerns, but the people who mentioned such conerns makes me worry about long time use.
I'm going to investigate this Zinc 60mg dialy thing one other poster suggested...
If you are female, for your acne, you should look into birth control pills.. you don't have to take them as "birth control" but as hormone regulators. Seems most women simply have acne disappear after you get the right pill hormonal levels. Sometimes, though, it can also cause a little weight gain. See your doctor.
I was prescribed Amoxicillin for a severe sinus infection a few years ago. I think it is a HORRIBLE drug. I too did not know at the time if I was allergic to penicillin. Low and behold I was and Amoxicillin gave me HIVES for a week. It also causes yeast infections and depletes the water in your body which can give you constipation. It gave me such bad cotton mouth that I couldnt sleep at night.
Bottom Line: I would not recommend taking this drug. Especially if you do not know if you're allergic to penicillin.
I too was very recently prescribed Amoxicillin for my sinus infection. After about a week or more into the treatment, I noticed my acne was also clearing considerably. My treatment just ended yesterday, so I have yet to acknowledge if it was actually the Amoxicillin or just coincidental timing. I'll take notice to how things develop over the next few days.
As a side note, I had almost no negative side effects while on the antibiotic.
I was also prescribed this for a sinus infection in November, after taking it for three days my acne had cleared up!! So after my infection cleared, I started taking two per week, every Monday and Friday and I have been clear since Nov! I just ran out the other day and thought I'd let it ride and see if I was 'cured'...I wasn't, I started breaking out again last night and today I have more break outs! So I'm going to go back to the Doc tomorrow and get another prescription...I'm sure taking two anti biotic every week (sometimes I just took one), cant be that harmful..I had no other side effects from taking these antibiotics either!
I suffer from nodular inflammatory acne and was prescribed amoxicillin for 3 weeks (2x 625mg per day) to fight the infection and then I will start on 30mg accutane. It has been almost 2 weeks and my face is completely clear! This antibiotic also cleared my skin many years ago when I took it after my wisdom teeth were removed.
I think it's a great antibiotic and I have had no side effects at all.
It's a bit odd that I will start accutane with clear skin but I know the moment I stop the antibiotics the horrible painful nodules will just keep returning.
Oddly enough I'm allergic to amox but not penicillin, Took it once when I had pneumonia and broke out in hives... either way I couldn't tell if it improved my acne much since I was covered in red dots anyway.
There are alot of antibiotics out there for acne, it could be any of them that work for some people, or none at all for some people. I have had no luck with any I've tried.
One guy wrote me here, asking if I was cured.
I learned more over the years. Here's my reply.
Amoxycillin only works for me as long as I keep taking it. I can take it, and within say 3 days I'm almost cleared up! I can then stop for about 5 or 7 days and then acne comes back again.
I learned that acne is a bacterial skin "flora" -- you have bacteria everywhere on and in you, some is good, some is bad. So, the antibiotic allows your body to kill off the bacteria, but it kills good and bad, that's why you can start with clean skin, then a week later start getting yeast infections (such as vaginal or in your throat). That's why one person said, "make sure you take a probiotic" so that it increases the growth of GOOD bacteria on your skin and in your body.
Think of bacteria essentially like your lawn, with competing weeds and grass. The problem is how to kill the bad bacteria (weeds) while helping the good bacteria (grass) to take over that area where the bad bacteria (weeds) has died off?!!
So, the probiotic is like overseeding your lawn.
If you can get enough good bacteria growing on your skin, the bad bacteria will have a difficult time getting a sizable colony started again. I guess you can think of them almost battling one another on your skin for space to grow.
The problem with facial cleansers is that they typically kill all bacteria, good and bad, and for some of us, the bad bacteria grows faster than the good.. like weeds grow faster than grass!
HORMONES seem to be the real culprit here.
Somehow hormones change your body chemistry such that your skin flora changes, the chemicals you create during and after puberty, for instance (more testosterone) makes it more pleasing for the bad bacteria.
...I wonder if we exercised more if it would then help "use up" the testosterone and decrease our levels?
Women often take birth control, which are hormones, and often that controls their acne... why? Because hormones create chemical skin conditions for skin flora!
So, can we men then take perhaps topical skin hormones to compete with receptor sites for testosterone / antigen?? like, I wonder if you took finasteride (an antigen receptior site bonder that thereby blocks testosterone from bonding to the site) and rubbed it on your skin, would it absorb to testosterone receptor sites and thereby stop the chemical process that makes your skin pleasing to bacteria that cause acne?!?!
Or, WHY can't men just take hormones like women to help balance their testosterone, if that indeed is what causes the conditions pleasing for acne-causing bacteria.
...then again, there's good evidence that birth control contributes to breast and ovarian cancer... I don't think birth control actually "changes" the hormone levels in your body, rather it adds to those levels -- but I don't know for sure.
In the case of oral finasteride (not hormones, it's a competitor for testosterone receptor sites in your body), my understanding is that you just excrete the excess testosterone out such as in your pee.
But, I've taken finasteride for about 11 years in 1mg doses to hinder hair loss and at age 40 I still get acne like I did when I was 18, so I can say it doesn't stop acne!! I believe I have higher than normal testosterone levels, though, I don't even work out and have always been pretty strong and have an decent muscular build.
After another failed 6-month treatment with Doxycycline, I visited my dermatologist today for my follow-up. The last time I was in, he said if the Doxycycline didn't stop the break outs, then my choices for next time would be Bactrim or Accutane (having exhausted everything else). However, when I walked in today I was surprised to see how fast he decided to prescribe me Amoxicillin. He said my face appeared to be responding to the Doxycycline, but not well enough to prevent breakouts. He said the Amoxicillin is the "next level" of antibiotic and might work for me.
Last year, I took Amoxicillin for a sinus infection and noticed my skin clear in only a 2-week treatment of it. I shrugged it off as coincidence, but I began to breakout again in the following days of being off of it. I have never heard of a dermatologist prescribing Amoxicillin for acne, so this is all perplexing to me. However, if it wasn't a coincidence and the Amox helped before, maybe a long-term dose will prove even better.
I'll be keeping track and let you guys know of how it goes.
> maybe a long-term dose will prove even better.
You do not want to go long term, however.
Antibiotics kill bad bacteria as well as necessary GOOD bacteria in your body.
It's fine short term to use it to help clear up an issue, but you should take a probiotic for your digestive system at the least. Try Amoxicilling for, say one week, then one week off it until you just start to get acne again, which will probably be 1 week, then go back on 1 week, and repeat that on+off duration.
What I would LOVE is if I could get skin culture GOOD bacteria -- so, take antibiotics, that rids my face of bad acne causing bacteria, and during that time, apply face cream GOOD bacteria to build up that good colony/flora. Hopefully that would then make it that much harder for the bad bacteria to get a hold on my skin.
I likened above the floras like your lawn. Antibiotics are lawn and week killer, giving you bare soil. Then I would like to apply grass seed (the good bacteria flora) and that will in turn make it more difficult for the weeds (bad acne causing bacteria) to get a good colony going.
pre teen kids have the good flora, I wonder if one coule "harvest" that good bacteria...
Mad scientist here...