July 27, 2021

Combatting Cystic Acne: A Complete Guide

We all dread acne breakouts. The worst is to get an inconvenient pimple before an important occasion like your first date or maybe an important business meeting over zoom. We always assume the breakout to be a random acne breakout, however, it’s not always the case.

Cystic Acne is acne that looks like boils on the skin. It develops due to a combination of bacteria, oil, and dead skin cells getting trapped within the hair follicles on your skin. They also cause large pus-filled cysts that form red bumps when they rupture. Due to the severity of cystic acne, over-the-counter treatments for regular acne do not work on them. Cystic acne treatment is best left to a dermatologist in case severe scarring must be avoided, let us explain why.

The Effective Way to Deal With Cystic Acne

Like just stated, the treatment of this type of Acne should only begin after you have consulted a Dermatologist. The treatment plan might consist of 2 therapies; the first being Oral Antibiotics.

Antibiotics have shown efficiency when used as the first line of treatment. However, they do not deal with exterior problems like dead skin cells, excess oil, which as we had stated before are the main causes of this type of acne in the first place.

The other therapy primarily revolves around dealing with exterior problems, and it is the use of Retinoids. We’ve already extensively covered retinoid and its role in Skincare on our blog. Retinoids do the exterior work by unclogging the hair follicles and eventually subdue the future breakouts.

Catching Acne Scarring In The Initial Phases

When dealing with cystic acne, it’s important to avoid acne scarring at an early stage. The scarring caused by cystic acne can often be quite severe and over time progressively become a lot more difficult to treat. To do this, simply get in touch with a Dermatologist when you spot cystic acne initially, do not wait.

Other Effective Treatment Options;

Lasers: Laser-based treatments work on killing the bacteria that are the root cause of the development of cystic acne. However, the use of lasers can only be done when the breakout has cleared up fully.

Fillers: PRP is a common filler for deep scars. For this to work, it’s important to make a roadmap with the Dermatologist and get an estimate on the number of sittings you’d need for the results to be visible.

Chemical Peels: Here at Cult Aesthetics, Dr. Jaspreet’s patients have seen wonderful results with Chemical Peels when it comes to dealing with acne. It is becoming quite a trend nowadays to clear out the skin via effective Chemical Peels on a regular basis.

Is Cystic Acne Preventable?  

Yes & No. Depends on the cause of the breakout. Sometimes when the breakout is due to hormonal components then this is beyond your control, however, if the breakouts occur due to poor skincare hygiene then improving the same can immensely help.

Can Stress Cause Cystic Acne?

Dr. Gaurav has already spoken of Stress & Hair Loss on our Hair Transplant blog. Well, it’s the same case with acne. Studies have shown that stress CAN alter the behaviour of the skin so developing cystic acne due to stress IS a possibility. What makes matters worse is when you are stress about the breakout as well, so it goes on in a cycle!

In case you’d like to get your cystic acne sorted by a Dermatologist, you may book a consultation with Dr. Jaspreet by calling us at +91-8826141232.