Brief Answer:
Acne treatment

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to healthcaremagic

I have gone through your concern and I have understood it.

First and foremost, you need to treat the irritation. I would suggest you to use a moderately potent topical steroid e.g flutivate cream, twice daily for 5 days, to resolve the irritation.

Thereafter, once irritation has subsided, stop flutivate and then you may begin with antiacne medications.

You need to understand that for acne there is no one time solution. Treatment if often long. Once your acne is under control, you need to use a maintenance gel, commonly a topical retinoid (Adapalene gel), to prevent the new lesions/comedones from developing.

-I usually start my patients of acne on topical benzoyl peroxide gel (e.g Microbenz 3.5 % gel, marketed by Sunpharma in India) OR Clindamycin gel (e.g clin 3 gel or clindac -A gel) for day time use.

-At night I ask my patients to apply a topical retinoid e.g either Adapalene alone OR Adapalene+clindamycin combination. e.g Deriva-cms gel (contains topical clindamycin along with adapalene in a gel formulation). Adalene nano gel contains Adapalene, however it should not be used twice daily as it may cause severe irritation.

Topical retinoids i.e adapalene increases the skin turnover and consequently decreases the contact time of keratinocytes with melanocytes, therefore it also has a lightening effect on post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

-I also decide to start my patients on oral antibiotics if they have inflammatory acne e.g doxycycline 100mg once or twice daily for 4 weeks OR Azithromycin (Azithral 500 mg) 3 consequtive days in a week for 4 weeks

-Use a gentle cleanser for face wash e.g cetaphil cleansing lotion rather than using a soap or face wash (neutrogena acne oil free face wash contains 2% salicylic acid and might cause severe irritation on your skin since you are already using adapalene and that too not once as recommended, but twice daily!!)

Once your acne activity is controlled, I would suggest that you should still continue with topical retinoid (Adalene gel) for maintenance (every alternate days) as retinoids are comedolytic and antiinflammatory and thus prevent new acne.

You could also opt for chemical peeling sessions of salicylic peel, from a dermatologist for acne.

Drinking 8-10 glasses of water and having lots of fruits and vegetables is good for your skin


Hope this helps
regards

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Brief Answer:
Acne treatment

Detailed Answer:
Hi.

Microbenz is available in a microporous technology which reduces irritation, due to the slow release of the drug. However, if you have a very sensitive skin, you may use topical clindamycin gel (clindac -A gel) instead of microbenz gel

Adapalene(adalene) gel should never be used twice daily, it will cause severe irritation

Azithral should be taken as 3 consecutive days/week for 4 weeks (i.e if you start it today then every saturday, sunday and monday for 4 weeks)

Once the acne activity is under control by the above mentioned treatment, I usually ask my patients to use an Azaleic acid gel 10% or 20% gel twice daily. Its main action is skin lightening and helps in fading post acne marks.

You could also opt for chemical peeling sessions from a dermatologist for postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (glycolic peel).

Regards

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Brief Answer:
Continue with Adapalene gel

Detailed Answer:
Hi.

Once your acne activity is under control you may still continue with Adapalene gel, as a maintenance therapy.

Adapalene is comedolytic and thus prevents new acne.

Regards

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