Get ready to love looking in the mirror again! We know what a huge difference being proud of your appearance can make. Let us help you achieve the glowing, confidence-building complexion you deserve by removing your acne blemishes with our customized laser treatments.
Our more natural approach to cystic acne treatment will return your skin to vibrant health and beauty without dangerous drugs by precisely targeting the cause of the acne.
A comprehensive laser acne treatment package includes specific lasers for inflammation, swelling, redness and pigmentation, and can incorporate BlueLight, or “photodynamic” treatments.
SilkPeel (dermal infusions) are often recommended, which deeply infuse and nourish the skin with specialized formulations such as salicylic acid to further remove acne and breakouts.
Cystic acne is a persistent inflammatory condition of the pilosebaceous unit. Inflammatory lesions such as papules, pustules, or nodules as well as open or closed comedones or both are prominent features. Cystic acne is both the most widespread skin condition and one of the top 10 most common diseases in the world. Nearly all teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 experience acne to some extent. Acne affects up to 5% of adults and up to 80% of teenagers.
Acne can have a major negative effect on a person’s quality of life. People with acne are more likely than those without it to experience depression and anxiety. They are more likely to have reduced self-esteem and physical satisfaction. The look, quality of life, and self-esteem of those who are affected by acne may greatly improve with effective treatments.
It is stunning to recognize how different life has been for individuals throughout history and how different it still is today for people in different places around the planet… Throughout time and space only a few things in common seem to affect everyone. Death, taxes, the opposite sex drives us bonkers, and acne.
That’s right, even the ancient Egyptians and after them the Greeks had special skincare lotions to help them deal with lousy skin and acne.
So, how do we deal with these four inevitabilities? Death we largely ignore; taxes we begrudgingly endure; the opposite sex we complain about half of the time and chase after the other half; and acne, because it makes us look bad, we spend billions of dollars dealing with. With all the time and money spent fretting about acne, you would think that by now we would have figured it out and eliminated it. But we haven’t, and not for lack of trying.In fact 90% of humans will have acne at some time in their lives. The bizarre (and lucky) 10% that manage to dodge it still have to deal with their siblings, friends, spouses and kids who do get it and become determined to get rid of it.
We typically get acne during puberty, when our androgen (sex) hormones start appearing on the scene. Ironic isn’t it, that just when we start caring about how we look to the opposite sex, our faces can look like a pizza. However, “adult onset” acne is not uncommon, wherein we managed to survive our teenage years unscathed, only to have the acne curse arrive out-of-the-blue in our mid-twenties or even thirties.
In some cases acne does not stop after adolescence. Statistics have revealed that adult acne affects 50% of women and 25% of men over the age of 25. Repeating the dangerous cycle of oral antibiotics and standard over-the-counter creams can seem daunting if you were never satisfied with the results in the past. Even if you were satisfied, all those antibiotic meds take their toll, especially on your immune and digestive systems, and long term use of them is simply not a good idea.
Knowledge Nugget: Aside from the obvious correlation with sex hormones, and some bacterial conditions (discussed later), we do not know what causes acne.
In our clinics we specialize in “Integrative and Laser Medicine”. We are particular focused on using “evidenced based science” to develop protocols that achieve the best possible clinical results. We have concluded that the best possible results are often achieved by combining different acne treatment modalities. This “Multiple Modality” approach has been particularly rewarded by the recent advancement in laser sciences and the many different types of medical lasers now available, that we can use in combination therapies for human skin.
During the past 20 years we have administered over 85,000 medical treatments to skin, primarily faces. We have treated mild acne that pops up just before a woman’s period and then disappears, to severe cystic acne that was truly destroying the patient’s skin, face neck shoulders and back, deeply scarring their skin as well as their psyche.
We have worked with every conventional cystic acne therapy there is, including the most advanced and expensive medical lasers available. We have explored using non-conventional therapies to get rid of acne including homeopathic treatments, acupuncture, diet, natural herbs and essential oils. We are open to investigating just about anything, and have tested countless “native”, “folk-lore” and “country” ways brought over from “the old country” by the great-grand-mothers of our patients.
Bottom line: There are countless acne treatments among which a few are scientifically developed or medically approved. Unfortunately, many of them do not work at all, and most of them do not work well. If they did, everyone would have heard about it by now, and the collective sigh-of-relief from around the globe would be thunderous.
None the less, don’t despair, because we have discovered that by combining specific conventional acne treatments with alternative therapies into a customized and coordinated multiple-modality protocol, we have been able to achieve satisfactory to amazing results with nearly all of our acne patients.
Acne treatments require specific lasers, which target the bacteria that infects follicles, eliminating the infection without antibiotics or . A specialized BlueLight can also be used for this purpose.
To achieve the best possible results, multiple lasers must be used that will target all aspects of acne lesions, including elements that are found in the epidermis as well as deep down in the dermis to eliminate infections and treat cysts.
In this case, it’s not just the results that count, but also the method, because the way we achieve superior results at AMA Regenerative Medicine & Skincare is without the use of harsh medications that have many dangerous side effects. Using the pure energy of specialized lasers is simply a better way to go.
In the most severe cases of cystic acne with active lesions, our laser acne treatment protocols might not be of sufficient strength to achieve the ideal result, so we customize a treatment that combines lasers with photodynamic therapy with ALA.
First, Levulan is applied to your skin and left on for a 30-35 minute incubation period. This clear solution is 20% Aminolevulinic Acid (ALA is a natural substance found throughout your body).
Once absorbed into your skin, the ALA is activated with a specific wavelength of light in the blue spectrum, taking about 10-15 minutes. Active cells such as sebaceous glands absorb ALA, and when the ALA is activated by the blue light, a patient’s overactive sebaceous glands are dramatically impacted and shut down – hence the term “photodynamic” acne treatment.
The ALA will also target sebaceous hyperplasia (small 1-3 mm bumps on the skin) and the papules of acne rosacea. Skin oiliness is decreased and the appearance of pores minimized. The entire skin texture improves following a photodynamic acne treatment.
After BlueLight treatment, the typical patient will experience redness, peeling and crusting for several days. Usually the first 2-3 days are the most intense. Complete resolution typically requires 2-3 weeks. Pressed mineral base foundation will hide most of the redness.
Remaining indoors is advised for 2 days following your treatment to avoid sun exposure, as there is photosensitivity for up to 48 hours.The advantage of this acne treatment is the rapid reduction in cystic acne lesions without scarring or surgical excision. Your skin appears refreshed and younger following each treatment.
Just 2-5 treatments within 3-4 week intervals, can rejuvenate and help restore your skin to a younger appearance.
There are no known systemic side effects to BlueLight.
In order to enhance ALA absorption into the skin, we recommend that a portion of the outermost dead layer of skin be removed (stratum corneum) before application. Typical methods include various skincare scrubs, dermabrasion or laser epithelial peeling techniques.
Results are greatly enhanced when a light Erbium laser peel is used, which is extremely precise and safe.A. Yes it does. It works any where on the body to remove acne.
A.Yes it does. We customize the protocol for different types of skin, and different colors of skin. That is why we have so many lasers. When evaluating color of skin, there are 6 different skin types… the protocols may differ for each of these.
When is comes to oil content, there are also different skin types for which the cystic acne treatment protocols are customized. Ethnic and racial heritage also factors in.
Bottom line, whatever skin type you have, the treatments will work to get rid of your acne.
A. Yes it will! Some acne results in brown spots, some in red spots. What ever kind of spot you have, it is a consequence of the inflammation that occurred due to the acne. The protocol will be customized to deal with which ever you have!
A. No. The treatments are entirely comfortable. We use two layers of topical anesthetic on your skin for an hour before the treatments.
A.Depends on the kind of acne and the severity of your condition. Generally, successful outcomes require 3-5 treatments. Some cases of very severe cystic acne may require more.
Once the cystic acne has subsided, we often give our patients 4 monthly laser treatments at no charge, just to be sure the acne does not return. Bottom line, the longer your skin stays clear of the acne cysts, the smaller the chance the cysts will return.
A.Sun exposure can improve acne and is more effective for body acne than face acne. Of course, over exposure to the sun is not healthy because the sun can cause long termed sun damage… so keep things in balance!
The reason sun can help to get rid of acne has to do with the interaction of sunlight with particular chemicals that naturally occur in sebaceous glands called “porphyrins”. In fact, modern medicine has developed an extremely effective treatment for various skin conditions that utilizes this interaction between light and porphyrins. The therapy is called Photodynamic Therapy (PDT).
A.Contrary to popular belief, environmental dirt does not cause acne. However if you have acne, poor hygiene will make the acne worse. Follicles are not clogged from the surface of skin; but internally under the surface of the skin, from overproduction of sebum and dead sebaceous gland cells. Once plugged up, the accumulation of sebum and dead sebaceous cells is what causes acne.
Washing your face too frequently and aggressively may actually irritate the skin and boost your chances of acne. Washcloths that are too rough can cause additional irritation that increases your risk of acne. Most doctors recommend washing your face twice each day. Of course, after heavy sweating and activity that dirties your skin, cleansing is a good idea.
Additionally, if by washing your skin too frequently you are removing too much oil from your skin, you will succeed in stimulating your sebaceous glands to compensate for the loss of oil by increasing their production of sebum… which may just exacerbate a vicious cycle your fighting to control your skin’s oil output. The answer is to find a balance wherein you and your skin can find a happy median.
A.There are simple things you can do at home to help prevent acne from appearing and help to get rid of it if it does appear.
Everything on our website comes from from reputable publications, books and scientific journals, most of which are available on PubMed and other government websites. These include Meta-Analysis’, Randomized Controlled Trials, Clinical Trials, Systematic Reviews, Books and Documents. We encourage you to read the science, in order to separate fact from fiction, so that you can arrive at a full understanding of what is best for your skin. We would be honored to be a part of that educational journey with you.
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