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My teenager has bad acne. What should I do to help improve my teenager's skin?

573 views · Published 27 September 2011 · 1:15 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: IntermountainParents · 2011 · Education

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As kids go through adolescence and start to develop acne, it becomes their whole world.  They get nervous about how they look and how it makes them seem to other children and to themselves, and so I often get that question in clinic.  There's lots of things you can try at home.  In general, we like kids to use gentle soaps to wash their face twice a day, but we don't want to leave the skin dry.  It's one of the most common misconceptions is that you're trying to dry the skin out.  When the skin dries, it then produces oil which can cause more zits.  And so, clean, but then using a moisturizer cream as well to kind of keep the skin moist, and a sunscreen to not let the skin burn, are all ways to help reduce acne.

Now for some children, especially in adolescence, that might not be enough, at which point it's probably a good idea to see your pediatrician, and to discuss other forms of medicine that can be used.  Some of these are topical, topical cleansers, topical antibiotics.  You might need oral antibiotics if you're having that deep red inflamed acne that many teenagers get.  So there's lots of ways to use different treatments, and there's lots of things that can be effective, but again, those things at home would be daily cleansing, moisturizing cream, and sunscreen.

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