Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Doxycycline: Does it help with Acne?

I recently had jaw surgery (again) and was prescribed a 14 day supply of Doxycycline to help prevent infections. I hadn't paid much attention to the information sheet that the pharmacist provided with the medication until about a week after I had been taking the antibiotics. I noticed my skin was clearer and the cysts were gone.

Doxycylicne helps with cystic acne

My first thought was that the medication (Doxycycline) was doing something to the acne! I ran over to the my medication cabinet and grabbed the information sheet I had stuffed in it. Turns out Doxcycline is a tetracycline antibiotic and is sometimes used to treat acne. I didn't know that. I was just happy that it helped keep my cysts at bay!

Does it work in the long run? 

After I was done with my prescription, my skin started breaking out again. Badly! Right now I have 5 cysts! My skin is a mess. 2 weeks of beautiful clear skin is not worth it to me! The sad thing is I wasn't even taking the medication to clear my skin. I was taking it because of my jaw surgery and the clear skin was a happy side effect....until I finished the prescription. 
I've come to the conclusion that tetracycline is not good for me. I need to stay away from that stuff because although it works to help get rid of the cysts, they end up coming back worse once I am done with the medication. That's just not worth it. Not to me.

Dermarolling update

Because of the cysts, I haven't been able to Dermaroll. I do have some great news to report though! If you've read my previous post, then you know about the one scar that I HATE because it looks like a wrinkle (in my smile line). It seems that the Dermaroller may have helped it. As soon as my terrible skin heals, I'll post a picture so that you can see what I am talking about. For now, I'll leave you with the image of my bad skin thanks to Doxycycline:



scarred skin
All those red marks are where my cysts are. The big red mark is where the cyst I had was popped by me (yesterday). It may scar in my smile line. :( I couldn't resist.