Winning the Battle Against Acne

Can anything effectively fight acne... and win?

Try to recall the first time you discovered that angry little bump resting prominently on your face. Did the bump appear by itself? Or did “cousin” bumps suddenly start popping up everywhere? It starts usually during our teenage years and for many of us, plagues us on some level throughout life. It can destroy beautiful smooth skin, displaying itself in the form of blackheads, whiteheads, or worse – large angry red cysts that leave telltale residual scarring in their wake.

Acne is a dreaded diagnosis for parents who agonize watching their children suffer through this twisted right of passage; for the teenagers who not only have to battle those constant hormonal changes to their body, but now have this added to their roster; and for adults who can never completely get rid of it. Can anything effectively fight acne…and win?

But what is acne exactly, and why does it create such agony? To understand this, we need to look at how acne forms on the skin. We all have sebaceous glands in our skin. These sebaceous glands produce sebum and oil, which keep our skin soft and smooth. In normal skin, the sebum rises through the hair follicle and exits easily. When dead skin cells or other matter disrupt this normal balance and clog these glands, the sebum isn’t able to exit. This is the beginning of acne.

Acne develops in three stages – and intervention is important because these stages can progress rapidly. The first stage produces blackheads and whiteheads. Contrary to what many of us may think, the black substance in the pimple is not dirt…it is sebum that has oxidized and turned black. Whiteheads are actually blackheads that contain a mixture of the sebum and dead skin cells, forming a white residue (pus) that appears when they are broken…or squeezed.

The second stage can produce a more emergent level of acne – pustules and papules. Trapped in the gland, the sebum and dead skin cells can become infected with bacteria, which can multiply quickly in the absence of air. This forms larger infected cellular masses, known clinically as pustules. If bacteria do
not form, the cellular mass can continue to build, forming conical papules. Papules do not contain infected matter, distinguishing them from pustules. However, papules often occur in clusters. Click Here to read the full article

If you are looking for laser acne removal services, or acne treatment in Charlotte, please contact us today!