Teen Acne

Posted: Tue, Jan 12 2010, 7:17 am Post subject: Teen Acne

What is normally prescribed? The skin doctor I sent my teen to wants to put her on pills for half a year! My daughter says this is common. I'm not surprised, but I'm not allowing this. It's just a typical case of acne! For that to pump hormones into a healthy kid? Isn't there a prescription cream or something less invasive than pills, stronger than over the counter creams, but mild enough to be safe?

In the meantime I bought her some natural sulfer (or tar?) soap at a lovely Yarden shop.
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Posted: Tue, Jan 12 2010, 8:41 am Post subject: re: Teen Acne

I don't know how bad your daughter's acne is- and I understand your desire to be natural. but for me, being on pills in high school and being able to clear my terrible complexion meant a lot for my self esteem. It's hard enough being a teenager, if you have bad acne, it's even worse

Posted: Tue, Jan 12 2010, 10:29 am Post subject: re: Teen Acne

What pills is he talking about? Can he prescribe creams instead e.g. (::walking over to the cabinet now: Smile

Erythromycin for night-time? For the day-time, can she use the Proactive knock-off from Duane Reade? Both worked for me.

If those don't work, give the pills a try. You don't want her to have permanent scarring and as OP above said, she'll feel so much better about herself. It's important @ that age...

Active Poster Joined: Feb 18 2008 Posts: 41

As a teen I was on retin A and a host of skin treatments including Mary Kay, Mario Badescu, and others.

All the above worked while I was using them but once I stopped the acne came back.

What I found that helped was going off of milk completely and getting to sleep on time. Getting to bed on time made a huge difference. Of course, due to hormones I still have occassional breakouts but my skin is clear and I am not using any skin care products, other than a cream I have for the occassional breakouts.

Pm me if you need more info.

Posted: Tue, Jan 12 2010, 1:18 pm Post subject: re: Teen Acne

Did your dermatologist say he'd put her on BC pills? Or antibiotics? Not the same thing!

I had pretty good success with a topical antibiotic lotion carried in something called Vehicle/N. Basically antibiotic dissolved in a bottle of some alcoholic-smelling liquid, applied like a roll-on deodorant.

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48153

What kind of pills? Accutane ? Oral antibiotic ?

My dd tried EVERYTHING.

Posted: Wed, Jan 13 2010, 1:16 pm Post subject: re: Teen Acne

I too noticed an almost complete improvement when I stopped using milk/ milk products.

The ask the dr. column in mishpacha magazine mentioned that a while ago.

Gold Member Joined: Oct 27 2006 Posts: 2416 Location: NY

Has she tried benzamycin (Erythromycin) or benzacline-which is a clindamycin benzoyl peroxide gel?

Senior Member Joined: Mar 05 2009 Posts: 215

I had pretty terrible acne when I was in High school and the only thing that really cleared me up was BC pills.

It was worth it.