Although acne medication can lessen and even eliminate acne outbreaks,
many patients are left with permanent scars. For these patients,
treatment with a form of surgery known as skin dermabrasion
can help give the skin a smoother appearance. In this procedure,
patients are given a local anesthetic to eliminate pain.
Then, a highspeed
instrument that resembles a wire brush is used to scrape
away the top layer of skin and alter the contour of acne scars. Small
scars may be completely removed, while the depth of large scars
is reduced considerably. Because the top layer of skin is removed,
after the procedure the patient’s skin often appears red and may
remain red for a month or more. However, according to Chu, once
the skin heals, 70 percent of people who undergo skin dermabrasion
report improvement in the appearance of their skin.
Risks and Side Effects of Acne Treatments
Despite the benefits of acne treatments, like all surgery and medication,
those used for acne can cause side effects and health risks.
For example, as in all surgical procedures, people who undergo
skin dermabrasion can develop an infection or have an allergic reaction
to the anesthetic.
Acne medicines too, present health risks. Topical ointments, for
instance, can dry out and irritate the skin, causing it to become red
and scaly. Retin A, in particular, makes the skin extremely sensitive to sunlight. If it is left on the skin when an individual goes out
in direct sunlight, he or she is likely to experience a severe sunburn.
Oral antibiotics can also present problems for some patients
by causing nausea, dizziness, stomachaches, and sensitivity to the
sun. Furthermore, because oral antibiotics kill bacteria, they alter
the level of normal bacteria present throughout the body. In
women, lack of normal bacteria can lead to the growth of yeast in
the vagina. This often causes the development of a yeast infection.
More troubling is the fact that long-term use of antibiotics can
cause people to develop a resistance to these drugs. This can be devastating
if a person develops a serious bacterial infection, such as bacterial
pneumonia or strep throat, that requires antibiotics to be cured.
Hormones, too, can cause side effects such as mood swings, depression,
and weight gain. An acne patient recalls: “I . . . took antibiotics
so long that I have become very resistant to many of them.
The doctors even tried birth control pills, the only real results from
that was an extra twenty pounds!”27 Hormone therapy has also recently
been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease.
