The acne on my back is much worse than it is on my face, what would you suggest? Interestingly, acne on the back is treated very similarly to acne on the face. A few common causes for back acne include the following:
• Hormonal Influences
• Bacteria (Propionibacterium acnes)
• Exfoliate Component (the way skin falls off of your face or back)
We’re going to explore ways to combat acne on the back as a result of these common causes.
The most frequent component is the antibacterial part. What we do is address this component with either a topical or an oral medication. The only special considerations I would give to the back is that you might need a medication that you can easily apply to the back and face. There’s a lot more surface area, than you can imagine, on the back. When treating back acne, we typically use more washes or foams. This allows us to cover a greater area on the back with the foam or washes as opposed to on the face, where we might use gels or a cream.
Oral antibiotics also work well on back acne. Doxycycline or minocycline are two of the most common oral medications used to treat acne.
Often there’ll be recommended an exfoliate pad with a a product in the retinoid family, like Tazarotene, which can be very helpful to exfoliate dead skin on the back. This helps to insure that there is no plugging of pores and no comedone formation on the back.
These are the most recommended ways to treat back acne. If you have spots of acne you would like treated, contact Bobby Buka, M.D. today.
