Video Website powered by Einstein IndustriesTorrey Pines Dermatology

FEMALE VOICE: In a nutshell, acne is actually caused by plugged hair follicles. We know that people with acne, their skin cells stick together and don't unplug that hair follicle. Dermatologists have a lot of medications that we can use to really help unplug that follicle and help decrease both blackheads and whiteheads, which eventually leads to a decrease in the inflammatory lesions of acne. There's also a lot of systemic medications that we can use to help when people have more severe acne. It's something that can be very frustrating for patients. And one thing that we recognize is, you know, your face is something that you show every day and people really get frustrated easily with it because medications don't work quickly. What we do with the patients is just work slowly with them over time, encourage them to continue to use the medications and really adjust the regimen to each individual. We don't actually understand completely why some individuals get more acne than others. There are a lot of factors that help play into it, different hormones, the amount of oil production that your skin makes, there's a lot of different things that contribute to it. We do know that there's a lot of old wives tales about acne out there such as different foods will worsen acne and we know that that's just not true. There really isn't any link to chocolate or pizza or greasy foods. I usually tell my patients that they're fine with whatever they eat. We do know that there are specific triggers, though, triggers such as different topic things that will clog pores, lotions, suncreens, makeups, that contain oils or heavy oils will definitely worsen acne. If people are in sports and wear a sports guard, something around their chin that really occludes the area right there, that'll also worsen acne at times. There's different ways to deal with that, though. And then lastly, we know stress, unfortunately stress is one of those factors that can just really flare up most conditions and in particular acne.