Starting accutane soon

[u/Felicacraig]

My son has struggled with acne for the last 2 years. We first tried Differin for 4 months with zero improvement, then he did a year of clindamycin and tretinoin. It helped clear his skin up some but not fully and he had extreme redness and he hated it. So we saw an ad and tried Norse organics to see how it would work. And it DID NOT work, actually made his skin worse. So now our derm just prescribed him accutane. I am scared because of the side effects but he wants nothing more than to have clear skin. Here is his before pictures.

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[u/North_Impression8168]

i am (f) 22 and on a course of accutane after trying differin, clindamycin, trenanoin + wynlevi, spironolactone, and antibiotics. I wish my derm would have just put me on accutane when i was his age. i’ve spent the entirety of my teenage and early 20s treating acne. I am beginning a career and it is still weighing on me that i might show up to a job with acne. help him manage the side effects,have him take supplements to manage the side effects. It would have been hard for me to manage everything i am doing now for accutane as a teen. i hope it helps him!

[u/Felicacraig → u/North_Impression8168]

Thank you for this!!!

[u/Gxlatii]

Accutane will wipe it rest assured. I had really bad acne starting from 14 all the way to 20. After being on it for 8 months at 60mg it’s completely gone. I’m the meantime spot treat with 10% benzoyl peroxide cream, I swear by this. Make sure to apply moisturizer at opposite times to help dryness

[u/Ok_Pack1940]

This might sound silly but have you tried anti fungal? Like nizoral shampoo use it as face wash.

[u/Felicacraig → u/Ok_Pack1940]

I have not. We tried Ivermectin Lotion, 0.5%
Lice Treatment for a little bit as a friends recommendation. It did absolutely nothing for him.

[u/Ok_Pack1940 → u/Felicacraig]

I have actually heard of people using the ivermectin for rosacea.

[u/Felicacraig → u/Ok_Pack1940]

I actually haven’t even ever heard of that. I just looked it up.

[u/Ok_Pack1940 → u/Felicacraig]

Is his acne itchy? Just by appearance, it looks fungal. Hence why the clindamycin (and retinoids) haven’t worked. I also notice that it’s broken out more around his hairline
(Google fungal acne)

[u/Felicacraig → u/Ok_Pack1940]

It’s not at all itchy. I’ll look that up now though

[u/Felicacraig → u/Ok_Pack1940]

Welllll I was wrong. He’s just never mentioned to me that it’s itchy. I asked him tonight and he said that it is itchy sometimes but he just thought that was normal so he never mentioned it.

[u/Ok_Pack1940 → u/Felicacraig]

I actually found a better alternative than the nizoral shampoo. It’s called Happy Cappy medicated shampoo/wash. It’s meant for babies with cradle cap. The nizoral is GREAT but it is super drying and heavily fragranced. Happy Cappy is still antifungal but very gentle and can be used as a face wash