The Skin Care Fact Center

Whether you are a teenager or an adult, acne can be an all too common problem for you.  It can be painful, distracting, and damaging to your self confidence when acne lesions are active and visible.As acne is such a global problem, modern medicine has been working tirelessly to develop an effective acne treatment.

A wide variety of acne treatments

Because each person is a little bit different, it often takes a bit of testing and trying different things to find the acne treatments that work best for each individual.Luckily, there are genuinely hundreds of possible choices available to help you in treating your acne problems.

The majority of acne treatments will fall into one of these categories:

Mild cleanser - These products are normally readily available over the counter in your local drug store.The mild ingredients they contain will work to cleanse your face of dirt and bacteria, thus tackling a primary cause of acne problems.

Chemical - Available either over the counter or on prescription, these products contain one of several different chemicals that are effective in eliminating bacteria, thus reducing the occurrence of acne.Common examples are salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide.

Prescription - Acne is one condition where many options exist within the range of prescription drugs.These acne treatments are of varying types and consequently the prescription for a severe case of acne will be different from the prescription for a milder case.These medicines are prescription only and are therefore, not available over the counter. To get these medicines you must first of all see a doctor or dermatologist.

Other - Light therapy, laser resurfacing, chemical peels, and pulse light treatments are available acne treatments at the moment, but new developments are happening all the time as technology improves, so the next, new technique may not be far away.These types of acne treatments are usually only available through a recommendation from your doctor, dermatologist, or other skin specialist.

Stay clean, stay clear

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when it comes to acne treatments is to keep your skin clean and bacteria-free.  Bacteria are the primary cause of acne, so the more you can keep it away the more likely you are to keep the acne away as well.

There is, however, no need to scrub your skin or even rub heavily to keep it clean.  In fact, the harder you scrub the more likely you are to irritate your skin, which in turn can lead to more bacteria and more acne lesions.You can give your skin the best possible chance of improving by gently washing it no more than twice a day.

For all the different acne treatments out there, many companies will sell there own version of a particular treatment which will contain the same or very similar ingredients to another companies product.A good acne treatment will not cause unnecessary irritation or cause unfortunate side effects like dryness, flaking and itching. If it makes it easy for you to clean your face, it is a good treatment for acne. 

Should any particular product cause you unpleasant side effects you have the option of reducing your use of that product or changing to a different one.No matter which products you end up using, it will take time for them to work.  Try to stick with a product for at least a few weeks or so to give it time to work; if, after that time, you are not getting the results you want then move on to something else.