Helping Your Teenager with Acne
- Posted on: Aug 15 2017
What causes acne?
People used to believe that acne could be caused by eating greasy foods such as French fries. Chocolate was also one of those guilt-by-associations foods.
Those were the days before research understood what caused acne. Now the secret is out — the sebaceous glands. The sebaceous glands are located at the base of the hair follicles and are responsible for producing oil that keeps our hair and skin from drying out. It’s an important job, but it is susceptible to the vagaries of hormones. So, when the hormones go nuts in adolescence, the sebaceous glands can go into overproduction mode. When too much oil is produced, the glands can clog. This is the basis of acne, because when those glands clog the bacteria that naturally are in the hair follicles doesn’t have an outlet, so it multiplies. These multiplying bacteria cause the pore to become inflamed. Your teenager thinks of this in the more colloquial term, a zit has formed.
How does Creative Image treat acne?
At Creative Image, we’ve had great success with photodynamic therapy for acne. We apply a topical medication/sensitizer called Levulan to the skin. Then we apply a specific wavelength of light energy (either IPL or Blue Light) to the Levulan treated skin. The light activates the Levulan, which is a 20 percent solution of aminolevulinic acid (ALA). The ALA kills the bacteria in the pores and dramatically decreases acne. These treatments not only kill the bacteria causing breakouts, but they also cause the sebaceous glands to return their oil production to normal levels for one year and sometimes longer. This is the process that Accutane follows, using antibiotics instead of light therapy. But our photodynamic therapy doesn’t have any potential side effects.
How is it done?
The first step in an acne session it to give the patient a microdermabrasion treatment followed by an acetone facial wash. This opens the clogged pores allowing better penetration of the ALA. After we apply the Levulan, the patient remains in a dark room for 30 minutes to two hours while the medication is being absorbed. Next, the blue or IPL light activates the Levulan and the ALA. We’ve found this to be extremely effective, with over 85 percent acne clearance.
Let’s clear up your teenager’s acne. Call us at 325-641-1927 and ask about photodynamic acne therapy.
Posted in: Acne Therapies, blog
