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Acne is a common complaint for many people, both men and women. One procedure to get rid of acne that is being loved is corticosteroid injections. Even though they are powerful, what will be the impact if you often do acne injections?
The negative impact due to frequent acne injections
Acne skin can really irritate you. In addition to reducing self-esteem, acne is often painful. If you are desperate to find a way to get rid of acne on the face, corticosteroid injections or acne shot could be an option.
Corticosteroid injections are also known as intralesional corticosteroid injections. This injection is actually used to treat large bumps on the skin. In addition to shrinking lumps, this injection is also used as a skin care treatment for acne, so it is called an acne injection.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, corticosteroid injections can flatten the bumps on the skin within 48-72 hours. Even if it doesn't go away completely, the swollen pimple can shrink, and the pain and redness can reduce. Within a week, the pimples will usually disappear.
The results of the injection may be satisfactory for most people with acne prone skin. However, this does not mean that this procedure can be done at will. Frequent acne injections can actually damage skin tissue.
This occurs because excess corticosteroids enter the skin. As a result, the area of the skin that is injected gets excessive pressure so that the skin looks like a hole (pockmark). This condition can indeed recover, but it will take a long time, about 6 months after the last injection.
In addition to pockmarks, the frequent injection of acne can also cause changes in skin color, such as white patches (hypopigmentation). This is usually common in people with dark skin color. Just like pockmarks, the spots will also fade over time.
The good thing, what if you do acne injections?
It's okay to get acne injections, just don't get it too often. You need to know, corticosteroid injections can indeed help acne disappear faster, but this method cannot stop acne formation on the face.
Therefore, instead of depending on acne injections, it would be better if you take care of your skin's hygiene every day and use the medication as prescribed by your doctor.
Your doctor may recommend salicylic acid, topical retinoids, or isotretinoin according to the severity of your acne.
In order not to get frequent, you certainly need to consider several things before deciding whether to get acne injections or not. Some things that might make it better for you to get acne shots include:
- Acne is inflamed for months and is difficult to treat
- Acne is quite large, swollen, and painful
- You have to attend an important event so you need acne shots to make your appearance better
Then, don't forget to take notes on the times you get your acne shots. Describe the last time you had the injection before doing it again.
Frequent acne injections are not good for you. That is why you need to know the following rules to support the doctor's treatment in dealing with acne prone skin, such as:
- Avoid touching your face with your hands. Apart from squeezing, touching your face with hands that are not necessarily clean can make acne worse.
- Soothe the pain from acne by using ice cubes. Wrap an ice cube in a tissue or soft towel then place it on the inflamed pimple. The cold temperature of ice can help reduce pain as well as swelling.