My Acne Is Embarrassing: What Are My Treatment Options?

Even though millions of people deal with acne, it doesn’t make it feel any less embarrassing when you have to deal with it yourself. Learn how to effectively treat acne — and boost your self-confidence along the way.

Your skin is covered with tiny holes called pores that can get clogged with bacteria, oil, dirt, and dead skin cells. When this happens, you may get a pimple — also referred to as a blemish, zit, blackhead, or whitehead.

If you get pimples fairly often or several all at once, it’s possible that you have acne, an incredibly common chronic skin disease. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, acne is the most prevalent skin condition in the United States, and it’s one that affects both adolescents and adults alike.

Acne can range from minor to severe. Severe acne can be painful, and may leave significant scarring behind. Because acne can pop up all over your body and leave so many scars, it’s no surprise that acne can cause severe emotional distress.

If you’re feeling self-conscious about your acne or acne scars, Ben W. Cilento, MD, MHA, and our team at Butterfly MedSpa and Wellness in Spring, Texas, wants you to know that we have several acne treatment options available that can help you get clearer, healthier skin. Here’s what you should know.

Common acne triggers

The single cause of acne is clogged pores. However, there are many different reasons your pores can get clogged. Excess skin oil (sebum), dead skin cells, bacteria, and inflammation can all fill your pores and lead to acne. Acne frequently appears around the face, chest, back, and shoulders, since those areas of skin have a higher concentration of oil glands.

Factors that can trigger or worsen acne include:

Using pore-clogging personal care products
Family history of acne
Hormonal changes during puberty or pregnancy
Stress
Air pollution
Smoking cigarettes
Wearing tight-fitting clothes

It’s a common misconception that eating chocolate, wearing makeup, and not washing your face often enough can lead to pimples, but there is no evidence linking these things to acne.

How we can treat acne

We offer a wide range of treatments for acne at Butterfly MedSpa and Wellness. The method that works best for you depends on what’s causing your acne in the first place, what your skin is like at the moment, and what you’d like to try.

For hormonal acne, taking hormonal birth control medication or, if you’re older, bioidentical hormone therapy, can restore your hormones to optimal levels and hopefully reduce acne as a result. If you have a lot of large, cyst-like pimples, injected steroid medication can significantly reduce the swelling and inflammation.

To clear up mild to moderate acne or to reduce the appearance of scarring, we offer these services:

All of these treatments can remove the outermost layer of dead, pore-clogging skin cells to help unclog pores and encourage the production of skin-renewing collagen.

For expert acne treatment, look no further than our team at Butterfly MedSpa and Wellness. Schedule an appointment with us by calling our office at 346-341-0600 today, or by using our convenient online booking tool anytime.