Acne Tarda
An increasingly common clinical picture
The teenage days are long gone and yet pimples still sprout on your face: late acne is the diagnosis.

Every 4th woman in Austria is affected and statistically the numbers are rising.
As with puberty acne, this clinical picture is a chronic inflammation of the sebaceous glands with mostly thickening of the uppermost skin layer, although it does not affect the typical T-zone of the face, but mainly the lower cheek area and chin region.
There are also fewer blackheads and more papulopustules, i.e. inflammatory nodules, usually filled with pus, which can cause itching and thus encourage scratching.
In some cases, deep-seated, inflamed lumps can also be seen, which are not purulent but are hormone-related.
The causes of so-called acne tarda are varied, which also makes efficient treatment difficult: on the one hand, it is incorrect skin care (usually too much cream and make-up), on the other hand a hormonal imbalance due to hormonal fluctuations such as premenstrual syndrome, menopause or simply stress! This is because psychological or professional stress also affects our hormone balance and this in turn affects our skin – as a “mirror of our soul“.
Unfortunately, the usual treatment of peeling the skin or antibiotic creams is of little help here, especially as the problem area is located deep in the skin, where a cream cannot reach.
What to do about it now?
Hands off the anti-pimple products for teenage skin, as these are usually not only ineffective, but can actually worsen the skin’s appearance in the long term!
In any case, it is advisable to visit a dermatologist who, depending on the type of late acne, will specifically address the needs of the skin. In the inflammatory form (clearly reddened, sometimes purulent nodules), antibiotic therapy in the form of creams or tablets is indicated.
However, deep-seated, “sterile” lumps, which are usually painful, should primarily be treated “from the inside”, i.e. with tablets, so that the active ingredient can reach the target organ, the sebaceous gland, efficiently. A mild therapy of retinoids (vitamin A derivatives) is usually suitable here, but these should be taken for several months in order to heal this chronic inflammation.
Light therapy using IPL lasers is a new and particularly effective treatment for all inflammatory forms of acne:
Light at a very specific wavelength penetrates the skin without irritating it and also reaches deeper layers of the skin to have an anti-inflammatory effect on the acne nodules on the spot.
After usually 2-4 sessions a great success is already visible!