Antibiotic Use in Acne Treatment
Posted on March 6, 2010
Filed Under Skin Care |
In the case of most adolescents, acne goes away spontaneously, leaving only a few scars. Yet if you consult a physician and take prescribed medication, you can get rid of acne in a better way without scarring. Antibiotics are the most frequently used systemic treatment regimens for acne much of the time.
An inflammatory condition, acne is cause by bacteria that seeps into the sebaceous glands of the skin. It can affect various parts of the body such as the back, chest, and face. Typically, acne is characterized by the increased secretions of sebum around the sebaceous gland, along with some inflammation. Although there are numerous acne treatments for eliminating this disease, typically antibiotics prove to be the most useful.
Depending on the severity of the acne, either oral or topical antibiotics will be prescribed by your physician. Long-term application of antibiotics is generally needed. Many times requiring several months of treatment before results become apparent, getting acne under control takes patience and diligence in treatment applications.
One of the most common oral antibiotics used to treat acne is tetracycline. However, if you are pregnant, you should not take this medication, as it may disturb the absorption of the hormone progesterone. Other oral antibiotics used for treating acne are doxycycline, minocycline and erythromycin. Another drug that works well for dominating pathogens that cause acne and also Gram-positive infections is erythromycin. The bacteria that causes acne can be quite well-controlled by erythromycin, which also is effective for Gram-positive infections.
Practice caution and utilize antibiotics as little as necessary. Antibiotics kill all the bacteria in your body, which is great when you need to take control of bacteria that has gone haywire. However, there are also good bacteria killed in the process, so it is highly recommended to take a probiotic supplement to replace the good bacteria while you’re on the antibiotics.
On the pharmacist’s shelf in lotion, gel, or cream forms are clindamycin, erythromycin, and tetracycline, three topical antibiotics that prove effective many times. But along with the benefits of these topical antibiotics, which have good results in treating certain types of acne, the downside is that some resistant bacteria may even grow and spread.
Where the prevention and treatment of acne is concerned, you should consult with your physician. For some the oral treatment is the best option while for others the topical antibiotics may do the trick. You may have to experiment with various treatment options before you find one that’s effective.