Do You STILL Have Acne With a Dermatologist Prescription?

Having acne, whether severe or mild is certainly frustrating to deal with, but luckily there are many trusted skin professionals out there who specialize in treating this skin condition. The two most common professionals that people reach out to for this condition are estheticians, and dermatologists, but the technique for each can be quite different. So who should you see to get rid of your acne? 
Recently, I had a first-time client who I gave a skin treatment to and she told me that she had battled terrible cystic acne in the chin and jawline area (those hard, sore, infected bumps under the skin that linger for weeks), and then came across this blog post that talked about how eating too much dairy might be the cause of cystic acne. So, as someone who gets a lot of dairy in her diet, she decided to follow my advice and cut it out for two weeks to see if there would be improvement. Sure enough, she didn’t get any new cysts at all. She had been on antibiotics several times in the past and while this did give some improvement, as soon as she went off of the pills, it would come right back. She was absolutely ecstatic that cutting out dairy (even though she loves cheese and yogurt) cured her of acne cysts. A few months later, she went to see her dermatologist to get her annual skin cancer screening check and mentioned to him that she had cut out dairy and her cysts completely disappeared for which he replied, “No, that can’t be, foods have no effect on your skin, that’s just a myth.” She certainly didn’t believe this, so she shared this story with me and it got me thinking about how completely different the approach can be that as an esthetician, I take when treating acne clients versus a dermatologist.
A traditional dermatologist has the ability to prescribe medications for treating not only acne, but many other skin conditions. Their world revolves so much around handing out prescriptions that they don’t necessarily have to research other non-prescription alternatives since they do know that pills will do the trick. Prescription medications can certainly work, and there are times when I will refer a client to get on prescriptions to support what I’m doing to treat their skin. However, they are often just a Band-Aid for an underlying issue for which I believe should be explored. 

A lot of people don't necessarily agree with being put on medication for acne, since medication in a lot of cases can start causing more symptoms and problems than the one it was designed to fix. If your acne is painful, causing you health problems, or making you feel bad about yourself, come see us! We can help you get rid of that stuff without damaging your skin further while giving you healthy and natural ways to do it! 

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