Oral Acne Medicine

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, board certified dermatologist, and author of "Six Weeks to Sensational Skin." This is about oral acne medication. Basically, there are two mainstays of treatment, as far as pills go, for acne. The first would be antibiotics and the tetracycline antibiotics, including tetracycline and minocycline, are the most popularly used antibiotics for acne. You also may be somebody who's been on tetracyclines for a long time, and now your acne is having a flare, and then your doctor may need to switch you to, especially if it's a bad flare, to a kind of sulfa antibiotic, because sometimes if you've taken tetracyclines for too long you can get a rare but very difficult problem called gram negative folliculitis. So, remember that there are the antibiotic pills for acne, and then if you're someone who's suffered for a long time and you're not responding to antibiotic pills please do ask a board certified dermatologist about Accutane. It can have certain side effects, but it's also very effective for treating severe acne. Good luck to you. This is Dr. Loretta Ciraldo."