Struggling with Back acne?
Struggling with Back acne?
Let’s learn more about back acne causes and treatment.
The face is the most common site for acne in your teen years, but your face isn’t the only place where you can get acne. Acne can affect any body part that has oil-secreting glands or hair follicles, including your back, chest, and shoulders.
Let’s start by explaining how does back acne form: Our body produces an oil called sebum, that is made in the sebaceous oil glands connected to hair follicles.
Back Acne form when extra sebum and dead skin cells build up and block skin pores, combined with an overgrowth of skin bacteria, which triggers an inflammatory response.
Acne in general occurs due to a combination of reasons like genetics and hormonal changes during teenage years or pregnancy. Certain medications can also cause acne.
However certain factors aid in developing back acne, like
· Age: Teenagers most commonly get acne or back acne compared to other age groups
· Certain medications: like corticosteroids, anabolic steroids, lithium and phenytoin.
Diet: High-carbohydrate and fat diets may contribute to acne breakouts, according to some study results.
Genetics: if your mom or dad suffered from acne most probably you will.
Skin environment: Contributors to back acne breakouts may include greasy or oily skin care products, tight or occlusive clothing, high humidity, heavy sweating, and friction or pressure from equipment, such as sports pads or straps.
Stress: Stress can increase breakouts if you already have back acne.
Acne as well as Back acne appear in more than one type that you need to know:
Whiteheads develop when a plugged follicle stays closed and underneath your skin, forming a white bump.
Blackheads: when a plugged follicle located on the surface of your skin opens, it forms a blackhead, the black-tip appearance of blackheads is due to a reaction between sebum and surrounding air.
Papules Acne lesions that appear as small pink bumps on your skin. This type of acne doesn’t contain pus and forms when a clogged hair follicle becomes inflamed.
Pustules some call it a pimple, a pustule is a white or yellow pus-filled papule with a reddened base.
Nodules form when bacteria become trapped in a hair follicle and form lesions deep below the surface of your skin, where it hardens and forms a large, painful nodule.
Cysts are larger, pus-filled acne lesions that also form when bacteria become trapped in a hair follicle resulting in a painful lump that may cause a permanent scar.
How can you make back acne better?
There are certain habits that you can develop in your daily routine the help your back acne get better
- While working out:
Wear loose-fitting workout clothes made of suitable fabric and make sure to wash workout clothes regularly. And take a shower and change after your workout as soon as you can.
- Watch out for skin care products that you are using: Antibacterial soaps, astringents, and abrasive scrubs can worsen acne. Same goes for loofahs, back brushes. Make sure you use gentle, fragrance-free skin-care products.
- Resist the temptation to pick and pop acne, even on your back, this will only worsen acne.
- Shower every day, use noncomedogenic or oil free body wash or soaps to avoid clogging your pores.
- Change your sheets and pillowcases weekly: Clean sheets and pillowcases are essential for clearing back acne. sheets and pillowcases are swamped with dead skin cells and bacteria.
- Make sure your wear clean clothing daily and avoid wearing tight clothing. Cotton and light weight fabrics are your go to fabrics.
What should I do when my back acne gets serious?
- Start by Over-the-Counter Treatment (OTC)
For mild back acne, over-the-counter acne creams and gels containing ingredients like benzoyl perpxide salicylic acid and sulfur can help get rid of blemishes and prevent new ones from popping up. It will be easier on you to use a body wash with acne fighting ingredients.
Off course you need to keep in mind that to have a real effect, you need time for these body washes to kick in.
- See a Board-Certified Dermatologist: make an appointment with a dermatologist when things get bad. A dermatologist is best specialist that can evaluate your back, determine whether you have acne or another skin condition, and then prescribe a medication to control lesions, if necessary.
Several Treatments are available to treat back acne that include:
prescription creams, antibiotics, oral acne medication. Laser therapy, chemical peels, or steroid injections are also possible options.