Acne is the bane of every teenager and some adults. But there’s no reason to suffer through it, as you may have done when you were that age. Today much more is known about acne and how to treat it. At Profile MD, we have various options to lessen the impact of acne.
What causes acne?
There was a time when people seriously believed that a person got zits from eating one too many potato chips or candy bars. Now we know acne comes down, basically, to one thing — your sebaceous glands. Your sebaceous glands can be found at the base of your hair follicles. Their job is to secrete oil that keeps your hair and skin moisturized.
The problem comes during the hormone free-for-all of puberty. Raging teenage hormones cause the sebaceous glands to produce too much oil, not unlike a Texas oil well gone wild. This overproduction causes the glands to clog. P.acnes bacteria that naturally live in the glands now go crazy and multiply. This causes inflammation, and your body responds by sending in the white blood cells. The result is a zit, a breakout, a blemish, whatever you want to call it.
How To Treat Acne
Whereas older acne strategies led to making the patient’s skin somewhat like the Gobi Desert, today we know that the P.acnes bacteria needs to be the focus of our efforts.
At Profile MD, we have three individual treatments for acne.
- DermaSweep Microdermabrasion— This microdermabrasion system removes the surface of the epidermis and clears clogged pores, increases blood flow, and makes the skin receptive to infusion solutions that attack the P.acnes bacteria.
- CoolTouch Laser— Our CoolTouch laser delivers pulses of energy that shrink the inflamed sebaceous glands. It also delivers energy down into the dermis, the skin’s second layer, to encourage the formation of new collagen, which provides structural support to the skin.
- Blue Light with Levulan— This is our most aggressive acne treatment. This photodynamic therapy uses specialized blue light pulses that activate Levulan ( the aminolevulinic acid that is applied to the blue light). The Levulan kills the P.acnes bacteria. The treatment also exfoliates the skin to unclog pores, and it calms the inflamed sebaceous glands.
Schedule A Consultation
If your teenager is suffering from acne, call us at Profile MD, 410-544-4600. We can make the acne take a hike.
