Prevent Pre-teen/Teen Acne

SKIN CARE EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW

The benefits of proper skin care procedures through a professional facial for pre-teens/teens include: safely and effectively clearing acne, calm ing blotchy skin, keeping skin healthy during hormonal fluctuations, preventing scarring, and maintaining youthful healthy skin forever. Proper skin care procedures can be effective at treating all sorts of skin conditions safely and gently. It is crucial that gentle care be taken when cleaning out the skin. A significant amount of people have the bad habit of squeezing their pores. Squeezing your pore generally results in breaking the skin, blood vessel damage, and collagen destruction. And worse off, the material that usually comes out is a small percentage of the trapped oils, bacteria, and pus. Most of the time, the base of the pore explodes under the pressure and releases bacteria and debris loose to all the surrounding tissue. Continually doing this will cause severe damage and scarring. Medical facials with a professional extraction tool and the valuable knowledge of how to use it will clear the entire debris from the pore without damage to the interior of the pore so that it can shrink to its appropriate size. There will also be no damage to the collagen, surrounding skin, or blood vessels. The skin is left completely able to heal and there is no scarring or large pores left in its place.

Acne is caused by clogged “pores” or “follicles” (small openings in the skin) that function for all of the skin’s absorption and excretion processes, including the hair shaft, oil glands, sweat glands, and waste/dead skin removal. When any of these functions overproduces or clogs, a number of different types of acne or congestion can form. It can show up anywhere on the body but it is usually found on the face, back, shoulders, and chest. Follicles become clogged by dead skin cells, oil (called sebum), and any other material made or stuck in the pore. Sebum (oil) is supposed to remove dead skin cells by moving them to the surface through the elimination process. When hormones are excessively active during puberty they stimulate the over-production of sebum which is too great to be sufficiently eliminated. The result of this clog causes trapped bacteria to begin to grow which leads to blackheads, whiteheads, pustules, pimples, and cysts.

Some of the most common misconceptions are:

• Aggressive scrubbing, over-washing, and intense drying of the skin are the most common techniques that adolescents use to try to reduce acne. Acne makes the skin sensitive, delicate and more prone to scarring. Doing things to the skin aggressively or in an irritating fashion makes the skin more vulnerable and unhealthy, creating a vicious cycle and more potential to scar.
• Mixing all acne ingredients together in a “one size fits all” formula is a common sales technique for certain over-the-counter products. In an effort to eliminate the need for diagnosis by using every possible ingredient, it ends up creating a potentially irritating final product that includes unnecessary ingredients coming in contact with the delicate facial skin.
• Getting a tan. It may seem like a tan masks acne, but it’s only temporary. A tan can cause the body to produce extra sebum, which may worsen your acne, not improve it. Ultraviolet radiation also causes DNA mutation that will causes premature aging and increases the risk of skin cancer. Inflamed skin exposed to the sun will definitely result in hyperpigmentation that can be difficult to rectify.

At-home products can be simple and stress-free. Having a professional skin care therapist determine proper skin type can prevent many future problems. Years of research and education are necessary for a skin specialist to be able to have a comprehensive knowledge of your individual skin needs. We can pass this valuable information on to our patients, specifically for their needs, and teach them proper skin care before they make any potentially damaging mistakes or waste money.

During the treatment, educating pre-teens/teens on proper skin care techniques, how to respond to a pimple, and important sun protection techniques are necessary for them to have healthy and beautiful skin now and in the future. Proper education of skin function and a professional diagnosis of skin type can allow adolescents the ability to make the correct decisions for their skin care needs and avoid accidently damaging their skin.