Can acne be cleared with antibiotics?

The first thing most skin care health professionals do for your acne is write you an antibiotic prescription. Many doctors ask no questions, never look at the face, and kick you out of their office in a few minutes (a quick $ 75-$100 consult). There are more antibiotic prescriptions written for acne than the common cold. Antibiotics were one of the first medications used to treat acne. Both oral and topical antibiotics have been used for more than 50 years to treat acne and one would think that after all this time, skin doctors would know a lot more- but the truth is antibiotics do very little for acne. It is the rare individual with acne that has ever obtained a cure with antibiotics.

Do topical antibiotics cure acne?

Actually topical antibiotics are a waste of time and money. They do nothing. You could get the same result by simply washing your face with a soap and water. There are several topical antibiotics, which are given to patients, but all of them fall into the category of rubbish (or JUNK). Less than 1 percent of individuals with acne ever respond to antibiotics. Even this response is neither reproducible nor reliable. Why health care professionals continue to write prescriptions for antibiotics for acne is difficult to explain (perhaps stupidity and/or ignorance about the literature!)

Do oral antibiotics cure acne?

Yes but in a very few patients. Overall, pills are just as bad as the topical gels. The antibiotic pills only work for the acutely inflamed acne characterized by red pustules. It is postulated that the antibiotics kill bacteria that cause redness, pain, and inflammation. However, in reality most individuals have a poor result with antibiotics. It does not matter which antibiotic is used the result is the same- NADA.

Testimonials on cyberspace indicate that effectiveness of antibiotics is worse than a sugar pill. The consumer should know that there are many antibiotics hyped up to cure acne- whenever so many antibiotics are used to cure one skin disorder; it generally means that none of them works.