If you are drawing unwanted attention and facing difficulties to socialize due to so many red swollen pus-filled lumps grown all over your face, then you must be suffering from cystic acne. This is the most severe form of common acne or acne vulgaris. They are inflamed, painful, and persistent in nature, which need to be cured with extra caution and rigorous medical supervision.
How They Show Up
As everyone knows, clogging of the hair follicles embedded below the epidermal layer of the skin is the main key factor behind acne vulgaris. When the hyperactive oil glands start discharging an excess amount of sebum or body oil, the dead skin cells around the follicle lining get stuck into it and enter the skin pores, blocking it partially or completely, inhibiting the body oil to come out.
Consequently, the trapped sebum along with the dead cells causes the swelling of the affected skin surface. To worsen the situation, some bacterial buildup within the skin pores start feeding on the trapped sebum and proliferate there, thereby resulting into inflammation. If the situation remains unattended or even popped and squeezed, it might aggravate to give rise to much severe form of large, painful lesions filled with pus.
Even though there is no confirmed and established reason behind acne formation found as yet, the common reasons behind the formation and proliferation of this extremely menacing skin ailment are believed to be:
• Hormonal imbalance
• Wrong diet or too much consumption of junk food
• Stressful situations
• Genes or hereditary factors
The biggest threat associated with acne cysts is the dreadful scars which occur mainly due to improper treatment and absence or lack of medical attention and attempts of picking or popping the lesions. Therefore most of the therapies associated with acne cysts often involve treatment of scars as well.
Although it is often thought that the formation of these swollen pustules is limited within teenagers and young adults, as a matter of fact, it has proven to have successfully crossed all barriers of age, sex and nations. And when it happens to adults, it is known by a special name as adult acne.
How to get rid of cystic acne
If you really do not want to be begging for a dented face then never exercise any self-guided operation to pick or pop the pustules. Since these are rather complicated in terms of severity, they need extensive medical care. So, avoid touching your face and stop trying over-the-counter medications, which are effective for milder forms of acne, might not be so good for the complicated, inflamed acne lesions. Only an arduous medical session can cure them effectively, setting aside the risk of scarring.
Treatment and its success depend to a large extent on the physical condition of the patient. This is no single treatment methodology for cystic acne which works with equal efficiency on all patients.
Accutane works significantly well by reducing the size of oil glands and curbing the amount of oil secreted by them. However, two pregnancy tests with negative results are mandatory before Accutane is administered to any woman. This is why the case history and physiological status of the patients bear considerable significance in treatments with isotretinoin.
Aside from isotretinoin, cystic acne is also subjected frequently to antibiotic treatments and surgical methodologies. Stubborn and persistent cases often respond well with intralesional corticosteroid injection. Skin professionals push this steroid directly into the lesions for a faster output and surprisingly it is achieved with success in most of the cases.
Oral antibiotics like erythromycin, tetracycline, doxycycline, and minocycline are used frequently by experienced skin professionals. Antibiotics are one of the most successful and matchless options for destroying the bacterial build up which are the major factors behind the swelling and inflammation of the affected lesions.
Modern treatment methodologies have opened innumerable gateways to heal this tormenting skin disorder. It is a heartwarming promise for cystic acne patients that one way or other, treatment is possible. Therefore it is time to come out of gloom and despair. All you need to do is to select the right physician who could provide the right cure for your acne problems.
