Acne treatments: Promising therapies for clearer skin

Acne treatments: Promising therapies for clearer skin
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Apr 21, 2006
Mayo Clinic.com

Learn about up-and-coming acne treatments that offer new options for a clearer complexion.

With the right treatment, you can keep acne under control. But what's the best acne treatment for you? Many options are available, including prescription creams and antibiotics, which target the various causes of acne. But even with the wide range of acne treatments, chronic breakouts may still be difficult to treat.

Promising new acne treatments Û such as blue light therapy, diode laser therapy or combination treatments Û may be effective options if other traditional treatments fail to work. But more studies are needed to determine who would be good candidates for these emerging therapies, the effectiveness of these acne treatments and what the long-term effects might be.

Acne treatments target causes

Each hair follicle is connected to sebaceous glands. They secrete an oily substance known as sebum to lubricate the hair and skin. Sebum normally travels up along the hair shafts and then out through the opening of the hair follicle onto the surface of your skin.

When your body produces an excess amount of sebum and dead skin cells, the two can accumulate in the hair follicle and solidify as a soft plug. As the plug grows, the follicle wall can rupture, allowing more oil and skin cells to accumulate. This is the underlying cause of acne. Bacteria can trigger additional inflammation and infection resulting in complications of acne.

Acne treatments usually work by reducing oil production, speeding up the growth of new skin cells and the removal of dead skin cells, or fighting bacterial infection. Some treatments, especially combination therapies, work by doing two or three of these.

Laser and light therapy
Laser- and light-based therapies reach the deeper layers of skin without harming the skin's surface. Laser treatment is thought to damage the oil (sebaceous) glands, causing them to produce less oil. Light therapy targets Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes), the bacterium that causes acne inflammation. These therapies can ....