Any Acne Treatment Depends Upon The Type Of Acne You Have

Before you beging treating your acne it is vital to know just what form of acne you are suffering from because, despite what many of us think, acne can be far more than merely a case of pimples resulting from trapped skin oil, white blood cells, dead skin cells and bacteria.

Acne is normally classified by grade starting with grade I which covers non-inflamed, mild types of acne such as blackheads and whiteheads. From here we move to grade II acne which covers instances of acne involving a large number of whiteheads and blackheads and generally also includes papules or pustules that are somewhat inflamed.

A papule is a small lesion, or break in the skin, that appears as a bump which rises above the skin surface and that is generally smaller than 5 mm in diameter. A pustule is similar to a papule but is filled with pus and contains a mixture of white blood cells, bacteria and dead shin cells.

Moving up the scale we come to grade III acne which is simply a severe case of grade II acne in which the papules or pustules are red, larger and more numerous.

Lastly, we come to grade IV acne which is the most severe type of acne and includes nodules and cysts. Inflammation in the case of grade IV acne is normally wide spread and this type of acne generally involves more than simply the face.

Grade I acne, which includes the common case of mild acne known as acne vulgaris, is not on the whole difficult to treat and can more often than not be cleared up with over-the-counter medications.

A more severe type of acne is acne congoblata which is characterized by heavy inflammation and deep abscesses which can frequently lead to skin damage including scarring, leading to the all too common problem of getting rid of acne scars. Inflamed and genrally painful nodules form around the acne spots and often grow until they spontaneously discharge pus. This form of acne can also lead to keloid-type scarring.

Acne fulminans is another form of acne where nodules will often ulcerate, resulting in a recurrent and painful form of acne. Those suffering from acne fulminans can also sometimes have a fever and experience aching joints and treatment using corticosteroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is usually necessary. Such drugs are however used for the treatment of the symptoms of this type of acne and not its underlying cause.

Continuing on up the scale some people will develop nodulocystic acne where unusual cysts (red bumps caused by severe inflammation) form and sometimes are so numerous and appear close enough together to make a relatively big area of inflammation. Nodulocystic acne can create tunnels below the surface of the skin which allow infection to spread easily and quickly. This form of acne is normally treated with antibiotics such as isotretinoin, which is better known as Accutane.

Finally, we come to gram-negative folliculitis which appears when the hair follicles become infected. Bacteria which grow at the base of a hair follicle cause the body to react by diverting white blood cells to fight off the bacterial infection and this can occasionally result in a deep eruption which needs specialist treatment. This particular form of acne is normally resistant to antibiotics and the condition can in fact sometimes be caused by using antibiotics to treat other types of acne.

Although extremely common, acne is far from being the simple condition that most of us have always believed it to be and it is not always a simple case of purchasing a cream from the local drugstore to treat it. So, as soon as acne appears you need to pop along to your doctor, or even better a professional dermatologist, and get a diagnosis so you can select the correct proactive acne solution from the start.