Topical Options

• Clean the skin gently with a water-soluble cleanser that doesn’t contain ingredients that can clog pores or irritate the skin. This helps reduce further irritation and red­ness, and reduces oil production triggered by nerve endings on the skin’s surface, which would make matters worse.

• Remove dead skin cells and encourage healthy skin-cell turnover, both from the skin’s surface and inside the pore, to help skin shed more normally.

• Absorb or reduce excess oil to reduce the main cause of clogged and enlarged pores.

• Kill the bacteria (P acnes) that are causing the eruption, inflammation, redness, and swelling.

• Topical retinoids (Retin-A, Tazorac, Avita, generic tretinoin, Differin) to normalize cell function, allowing the pore to function normally.

• Laser treatments.

Updated: September 20, 2015 — 2:44 am