How to Personalize Treatment for Acne-Prone Skin

Acne is a skin condition that occurs when the hair follicles get clogged with dead skin cells and excess oil. This condition is most common in the teenage years; however, it can generally affect people of all ages. Acne treatment is essential for obvious medical reasons, but it's also important to treat it as it can affect the person's mental health with the condition. The earlier a patient starts treatment, the lower the risk of such problems will be. Here are some pointers on how to personalize treatment for your acne-prone skin to get the most benefits.

What Makes Skin Acne-Prone

Biologically speaking, everyone has the same skin, and everyone has hormonal fluctuations, increased production of oil, and bacteria that cause acne in their skin. These aspects could theoretically cause massive acne breakouts at any given time on any person's skin. Then how come some people are more susceptible to acne while others have almost flawless skin? The answer is simply that there is no specific reason that you could put your finger on to blame.  

It is common knowledge that being genetically predisposed to acne will almost certainly land you with plenty of them. But what about the rest of the potential causes? The closest that scientists have come to explaining what makes skin acne-prone is the response of the toll-like receptors (TLRs) in the skin that assess certain activities as a threat and tell your body how to react. These activities can include eating a whole pizza, drinking a gallon of alcohol, and other unhealthy behaviors for our organism.

Know Your Skin Type

One of the first steps you should take to personalize treatment for your acne-prone skin is to know your skin type. It's commonly known that oily skin will most often lead to acne because excess oil is a very well studied contributor to acne breakouts. However, dry skin types can also experience acne-outbreaks for numerous reasons, whether it's due to the environment or only a lousy skincare routine that clogs pores and irritates the skin. 

The best way to determine your skin type is to wash your face with a mild soap, and gently pat it dry. You should examine your skin a couple of hours later. If it looks shiny, you have an oily skin type. If it looks red, rough, or it appears flaky, you have dry skin. In addition to these types, if your skin seems dry on the cheeks and shiny on your T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin), you have combination skin. If you know your skin type, you will learn how to adjust the skin products accordingly.

The Severity of Your Case

One additional aspect that can help you find the best treatment for your specific acne condition is how severe your case is at the given moment. People who have a painful acne condition have many breakouts, which usually aren't present only on the face, but the rest of the body. Severe acne also causes breakouts that extend very deep into the skin, which are generally very painful. Even when a severe case of acne clears, it will often leave a scar.

Living with a severe acne condition can negatively impact people's psyche. Many studies found that severe acne usually leads to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. One of the essential ingredients that should be included in harsh acne treatment is isotretinoin. This potent medicine attacks all acne causes such as bacteria, clogged pores, inflammation, and excess oil. Another powerful medicine is prednisone. However, since it is a very potent corticosteroid, it needs to be prescribed in low doses.

Consult Experts

Before you start considering which ingredients will best suit your skin type, the type of acne you have, and how it will impact your case's severity, you should always consult the experts first! This is especially true if you have regular outbreaks and a generally severe case of inflammatory acne. Many curology reviews suggest that the reason behind this is that most of these ingredients are pretty potent, and they can cause some severe problems or nasty side effects if their intake is not strictly regulated and supervised. 

This is why you must have a dermatologist so that they could oversee your skincare. However, dermatologist services aren't always available to many people, so that additional medical staff can supervise the ingredient intake. Physician assistants or nurse practitioners are no less critical than dermatologists, and in most cases, they are very knowledgeable. Whichever treatment you are planning to implement, you should consult an expert in the field related to your problem before you go any further.

What Kind of Acne Do You Have

Another aspect that plays a vital role in making an excellent personalized treatment for acne-prone skin is identifying the type of acne outbreak you are having. Acne can be divided into two categories, inflammatory types and noninflammatory types. The easiest type to spot is noninflammatory acne. They are also the mildest type because they refer to clogged pores that show up as either blackheads or whiteheads (or both). Blackheads, as the name suggests, appear to have a black top, and they can appear flat against the skin. Whiteheads are usually seen as small bumps with no specific color.

Inflammatory acne is all the acne that is red and bigger in appearance. Some of the most common types are papules, pustules, nodules, and cysts. Papules are tiny red bumps, as well as pustules, but only pustules contain pus. The other inflammatory acne types show up more in-depth into the skin and are usually more painful. They are typically larger than an average pimple. Using the wrong treatment for inflammatory acne will only make them worse.

It's important to note that, while all these factors are essential to consider if you want a personalized acne treatment, you will see little to no improvements in your acne condition without being consistent with treatment. Be sure to practice good hygiene, and use your personalized skin treatment regularly and in the amount that your physician has recommended to get the best results.