What is Bad Acne?
Exactly what constitutes bad acne? That’s actually a very subjective question. For some, bad acne is any acne at all. Those people are the lucky ones who hardly ever experience an acne eruption. For others, it’s having multiple breakouts in different areas of their body. That takes time and discipline to treat and care for. But if we take the subjectivity out of the equation, bad acne is really just a synonym for a severe acne type known as cystic acne.
Cystic acne is inflamed or infected pockets of trapped sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria. This happens when the bacteria that live quite innocuously on the surface of your skin find a clogged pore filled with sebum and dead skin cells. What happens next is that the bacteria have a feast on the clogged material and as they grow and multiply the body’s immune system reacts. It reacts by sort of “quarantining” the inflammation from the rest of the body. And that’s how acne cysts are born.
The cysts themselves are smooth red unsightly bumps. They feel sometimes like they have a solid center. Worst of all, they are very difficult to treat. Normal acne products do work on them but at a slower rate than normal pimples (whiteheads and blackheads). They can be covered up by over-the-counter concealing gels but that can sometimes add to the skin’s irritation.
People with bad acne like this may want to see a dermatologist instead of trying acne treatments themselves at home. A doctor can prescribe more powerful drugs and treatments and that’s often the only thing very bad acne skin will respond to. Bad facial acne in particular may need specialized treatment to avoid the scarring that can occur with acne cysts.
So how do you know if a dermatologist is the right choice? Well, if you’ve been making a good-faith effort to keep your skin clean and oil-free, and you’ve been making the right choices regarding your other personal hygiene habits, and yet your acne hasn’t improved (or it’s gotten worse), then you should probably seriously consider visiting a dermatologist.
Really bad acne shouldn’t be treated lightly. Cysts are serious business. Their inflammation and bacteria can spread to deeper parts of your skin which leads to more cysts and more physical and psychological pain. Ultimately, acne cysts can lead to permanent scarring.
So in the end while bad acne is a somewhat subjective label, there’s nothing subjective about the severity of cystic acne. It’s a serious skin problem and should be treated as such. And while there are no miracle acne solutions to wipe bad acne away overnight, there are acne treatments that do work. Keep the faith and fight on.
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[...] Acne is caused by a series of events coming together in the skin. These are natural events to be sure and when they occur the way they were designed to, your skin suffers no acne breakouts. But when one or more of them becomes imbalanced, they combine to produce whiteheads, blackheads, or acne cysts. [...]
[...] Finally, there are the side effects. As a family friend and doctor once told me, “you can’t have a primary effect without at least one side effect” and the same is true of acne laser treatments. You may be able to get at the root causes of your acne but there will be a certain amount of pain involved and a certain amount of skin swelling and redness as well. This is especially true if you have bad acne. [...]