What can the doctor do?

The doctor may choose to use medicine that you must use locally on the skin where the pimples are (local treatment) or the doctor may tell you to take tablets (oral treatment).

Local treatment

You can get the medicine on prescription. The medicine has few side effects; most common is redness and irritated skin. The medicine is efficient with many people but you need to use them over a longer period (2-4 months). If you should get side effects, you can try to use the medicine less frequently or stop.

Oral treatment

If the local treatment does not help, the doctor will often chose to give you tablets with antibiotics. Antibiotics is drugs that kill the bacteria in the hair follicle and stops the irritation in the skin. The treatment will often last for months. This treatment is normally efficient but not without side effects. Especially nausea, vomiting, frequent, and loose stools occur.

There are also other problems when you take antibiotics for months – namely the development of bacteria that is resistant to the antibiotics you are taking. Therefore, you only rarely take antibiotics against pimples for more than 6 months.

Referral to a dermatologist

Finally, your doctor can refer you to a dermatologist that can give you a course of treatment.