What is the Best Over The Counter Acne Treatment For Adults?
One of the most immediate ways to get relief from acne is to use over the counter acne treatment.
With several acne creams on the shelves today, which is the best over the counter acne treatment that you can use?
Get Relief From Acne With Over The Counter Acne Treatment
Unfortunately, the world we live in places a lot of emphasis on first impressions.
When you look good, people will tend to have a more favorable impression of you. So what acne treatments can you use?
The Best Of OTC Acne Treatments
Over the counter acne treatment is usually effective for mild to moderate acne. Occurrences like pimples, blackheads, whiteheads or even some papules or pustules can usually be treated.
Benzoyl Peroxide
One of the best over the counter acne treatment you can use is benzoyl peroxide. Benzoyl peroxide works by killing the bacteria that causes acne inflammation, the Propionibacteria Acne. It also helps by unclogging the pores and reducing inflammation.
As it is quite common, you can usually pick it up from your local pharmaceutical or grocery store.
Since it comes in different levels of concentration (from 2.5% up to 10%), it is usually good if you start with the milder forms of acne cream.
Sulfur and Resorcinol
Other active ingredients that are effective and available in over the counter acne treatment products are sulfur and resorcinol. These work together to clear your skin of dead skin cells as well as get rid of excess oil. These can be found in common OTC acne treatments like Clearasil.
Salicylic Acid
Salicylic acid is also found in some over the counter acne treatment products. What it does is to help improve the shedding of skin cells. Through this, it helps keep the pores of your skin clear of any blockages that eventually cause excessive buildup of oil under the surface.
How does it work?
The protein that holds your skin cell together is keratin. When you use salicylic acid, it helps to break this particular protein down. This causes the old skin to be exfoliated and thus over time, new and healthier skin is allowed to come to the surface.
If you have blackheads, using salicylic acid over 3-6 months can actually help to bring them to the surface and eventually be expelled from your skin.
Using Over The Counter Acne Treatment
While there are common OTC products that have helped many people clear acne, not every case of acne is caused by the same reason.
As everyone responds differently to treatment, there is really no one “best” method to get rid of acne. What is more important is to use an acne treatment consistently over 6 – 8 weeks. You will be able to tell if it’s working.
If after this time, there is no difference to your skin then you should consider speaking to a dermatologist. Furthermore, if you are experiencing excessive symptoms like extreme irritation or peeling, or even cause more acne to break out, it is best to talk to a medical professional.
You can get relief from over the counter acne treatment. Just stick to your course of treatment with consistency and do your best to not get discouraged. If you still have no results after all that time, then you may want to consider natural acne treatment methodologies as part of your overall acne treatment regime.