Video:Top Treatments for Back Acne
with Dr. Debra JalimanBack acne is frustrating to treat because it is often difficult to reach. Watch this health video from About.com to learn how to treat back acne with a few effective procedures and medicines.See Transcript
Transcript:Top Treatments for Back Acne
Hi this Dr. Debra Jaliman, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City and author of the book Skin Rules, Trade Secrets From a Top New York Dermatologist, here for About.com to talk about back acne.
What is Back Acne?
Back acne is the same acne you find on your face or your chest, but it can be very frustrating to treat. Why? Because it's sometimes very hard to reach.
Treating Back Acne
How do we treat it? Oftentimes we treat it with sonic cleansing systems, because the sonic cleansing systems get off 95% of the bacteria on the skin, and also get off the dead skin. If you can't use a sonic cleansing system, many people like to use loofahs or poofs to get off the dead skin cells. The other thing we like to do is we like to use benzoyl peroxide washes on back acne. Because the benzoyl peroxide gets off the dead skin cells and it often brings oxygen to the skin to destroy the 'p-acnes' that's responsible for the acne. Another thing that I like to use is antibiotic foam. I find the foams are very easy to spread on the back.
Oral Medication for Back Acne
Since it's very hard to use topical preparations on the back, many people opt for internal medications, for example, antibiotics by mouth. So many times I prescribe internal antibiotics, for example, minocyclines or doxycyclines. But just remember if you're using doxycycline and you're going out in the sun, you have to use a broad spectrum sunscreen, with an SPF of 30. One that blocks UVA rays as well as UVB rays because you don't want to end up with a bad sunburn.
Many times we even have to do a back facial and we take out all the blackheads and whiteheads on the back, and also we inject the cysts that happen on the back with intralesional hydrocortisone. We also sometimes put acids on the back. We use glycolic acid and sometimes we use salicylic acid peels on the back to get rid of all that dead skin that we find. Sometimes we even have to do microdermabrasions. So there are many different ways to treat back acne, they're very safe, they're very effective.
If you have any other questions about back acne, please go to About.com.
