recent flare up

Dear Doc,

During my teen years I battled acne, face & back.  I've used many types of topical creams and antibiotics that helped to finally get rid of most of my acne by about 20-21 years old.  I am now 24 and have just had a recent outbreak mainly on my forhead.  THey are the small red pimples, and there are about 12-20 little pimples on my forehead.  My question is why all of the sudden this outbreak on my forehead after such a long absence?  I would still get the occassional pimple here and there, but nothing like I have now.  This outbreak started about 4 weeks ago.  I did see a derm prior to this outbreak for remaining acne on my back that I wanted to rid myself of.  He prescribed me brevoxyl and tetracylene.  About two weeks after going on the tetracylene I started breaking out on my face.  Could the tetracylene be causing this breakout?  I've used tetracylene during my teen years, and it did little to nothing to help my acne then.  I've also been exposed to very humid, hot weather.  Could the humidity be causing this breakout?  Thanks for your reply.

mav01

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Good questions, to which I have few answers.  Basically, we don't know why intermittent rashes like acne flare up at particular times.  I will say that 1) getting flareups post-adolescence is far from uncommon and 2) tetracycline may not have prevented the flare, but certainly didn't cause it.

I recommend that you ask your demratologist what other measures he or she might recommend to control the acne, whatever miay have caused the outbreak.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff