This audio podcast has been transcribed using an automated service. Please forgive any typographic errors or other transcription flaws.
Question is, what options can African Americans have for acne? There’s actually pretty similar recommendations for acne for patients of color versus Caucasian patients. Most acne is going to be a very similar process where you’re going to have blockage, excessive oil that’s going to serve as that appetite for the acne bacteria which can lead to blackheads, whiteheads, papules, and pustules.
Similarly, you want to treat the amount of oil, and that can be things with retinols, retinoic acid, things that are going to decrease the amount of oil. You can also decrease the amount of debris and oil with salicylic acid. Finally, for patients who still are not improving, you can do antibiotics, normal antibiotics. For patients who do develop scarring, this is where there is a difference between African Americans and Caucasians because some lasers are not going to work for patients with darker skin types, and so we have a special type of laser and devices to help with patients with darker skin types.
Those devices include radiofrequency needling devices such as Morpheus, Pico lasers which are designed to work with patients with pigmentation in their skin, and a series of other needling devices and Erbium lasers which can improve the overall texture. Yeah, there are some differences in treatment of acne scars for patients of color but not as much in the way that acne develops because our skin and that process of acne is going to be similar.
