Adult acne

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Acne - the stubborn and unsightly blemishes that more than 85 per cent of Australians have experienced.

Debbie Roach was blessed with porcelain skin throughout her teenage life - that was, until she turned 22. An outburst of adult acne, suddenly challenging every part of her life.

"I wouldn't leave the house without a layer of makeup and just it became a mission like a quest to try and overcome it," Debbie said.

"I was thinking about quitting my job and moving back to my mum's house and just hiding until it went away."

Caused by the overproduction of male hormones in men and women, excess oil is trapped under the skin, resulting in red and inflamed sores - a condition we spend around $6 million a year trying to find a cure for.

The ever-expanding range of drugs and creams can be a disappointment for acne suffers, says Dr Gary Cussell from The Facial Rejuvenation Clinic. He says there's no one answer, with long term maintenance the key.

"The problem for a lot of people with acne is they pick and squeeze their acne and the healing process associated with breaking the cysts under the skin is that it causes scarring," says Dr Cussell.

Those stares have caused Len Pangilinan over 20 years of pain and social embarrassment. After spending nearly $10,000, that hunt finally ended when Len started receiving a new Fraxel laser treatment to clear scarring.

Penetrating five times deeper than other resurfacing lasers a series of around five half-hour treatments are needed with results seen within the first few days.

"The reason that Fraxel is so successful is that it's a true resurfacing laser meaning it removes skin but it does it without breaking the skin" says Dr Cussell of the Facial Rejuvenation Clinic.

"How this works is, it actually stimulates new collagen production so we're removing old scar tissue and replacing it with new collagen."

But it doesn't come cheap. Each session costs around $1100 and it will leave you with a red face for about two days.

If that sounds a little out of the budget, then you might want to reconsider what you're using to cover up, with new make-up ranges specifically targeting problem skin.

But according to naturopath Natalie Latheron, there's no quick fix to treating acne, with many of her patients wasting money on products filled with broken promise.

"With the mineral make-ups that are now available you can put on really good applications of it, but it's not going to be clogging pores," Natalie said.

"Acne is not a problem - that's just skin deep, so we need to look at the situation more realistically. It is generally going to be a lot more effective to treat from the inside out."

"With regards to products that we find in the supermarket I have a real issue with how many synthetic chemicals that these products contain. Things that we should avoid to stop ourselves getting adult acne are particularly dietary things like very fatty foods, fried foods, a lot of sugary foods and refined carbohydrates," adds Natalie Latheron.

Debbie has managed to get her skin under control, incorporating a routine of 15 different products a weeks, deep-skin cleansers, peels and Fraxel laser, she now has her confidence back.

Further information

The Facial Rejuvenation Clinic
Website: www.facialrejuvenation.com.au
Tel: 1300 889 935