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Dermatology (Expert Forum)
Acne or Irritation & Light Treatment
Welcome to the DERMATOLOGY FORUM! Questions in this forum are answered by Dermatologists from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, under the direction of Andrew Alexis, M.D., M.P.H.
Acne or Irritation & Light Treatment
by Michael__0__0, Aug 13, 1999 12:00AM
Posted by Michael on August 13, 1999 at 09:06:21
Dr. R,
(Pardon my again combining two questions, but I don't wish to hog the daily question allocation.)
Acne or Irritation:
I almost always have a number of relatively small reddish spots, usually on my cheeks. They aren't the 'angry' red of classic blemishes, they aren't raised or tender, and they tend to stick around longer than my relatively rare 'normal' blemishes. If anything, these spots look dry and irritated. Is this acne, or might it simply be skin irritation that has resulted from overzealous application of topical acne medications? Might I be keeping these spots around longer by throwing large amounts of Benzoyl Peroxide, Cleocin-T, and Differin at them?
Light Treatment:
Recently, Dermalux (a British company) has come out with an acne treatment that involves daily, 15 minute exposure to red and blue wavelengths of light. They claim that a 12 week test conducted by Dr. Tony Chu (a consultant dermatologist) at Hammershith Hospital, London, shows that this treatment was significantly more effective in reducing the activity of acne. They also claim that these wavelengths of light do not contribute to sunburn or sun damage. (It's explained in more detail at http://www.dermalux.co.uk/how.htm)They're selling this device for 200 pounds, which is a fair amount of money. Might it be worth giving a shot?
Thanks,
Mike
Posted by Derm M.D. ASR on August 13, 1999 at 14:42:57
Michael:
1. There actually is no such thing as a "normal" blemish. They can vary as widely as the people who have them in terms of duration. Having said that, I'm not sure what you're describing are blemishes or irritated blemishes, or irritations of other sorts. Why not stop everything for a couple of weeks and apply nothing more than a bland mositurizer? If they haven't calmed down (and the zealous treatment you're applying obviously isn't helping), perhaps you should see a live Dermatologist.
2. Where do you find this stuff? Truly, the web has everything! The site you directed me to, besides funky British diction, describes a new machine which claims (gasp!) to be BETTER THAN BENXOYL PEROXIDE (which is available without prescription.) As proof, they offer no published studies, just a testimonial by some London Derm.
Does it work? Who knows? I predict they'll sell a million of them and retire.
Best.
Dr. R
keywords: acne, Rockoff
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