In my opinion, no. Even after accutane I have had severe breakouts that I just have to manage with topicals like benzoyl peroxide.

The dermatologists I have seen (Dr Lim, Dr Rullan) have treated me with active acne on my face. I think if you wait for your acne to clear up 100% then you will be waiting forever. This is no realistic. Obviously not talking about severe cystic acne but I have had more than a few breakouts around my chin, jaw, and cheeks.

On 7/22/2021 at 2:20 PM, acknee4life said:

I always see it recommended that you get rid of any active acne before addressing your scars because you could just get more acne which in turn leads to more scarring. However, how realistic is it that you can get rid of your acne 100%? Is that something that actually happens?

For me my face is clear for the most part but there still is the occasional cyst that I get which most of the time leaves a scar. Basically is it actually expected to get a completely clear face forever? The next strongest thing for me to try would be like accutane but I'm not really thinking about that.

I read that inflammation of acnewill impede the healing of any treatment. I heard from my dermatologistacne will cause scarring even though you did not press it.
It is possible to get clear face just control your diet. Try eliminate dairy and sugar totally.
Avoid foodsthat are high in glycemic index (look for keto diet)
Drink more water

Knowing your skin type and choosing the right cleanser is important too. For example if you have oily skin use a cleanser that has salicylic acid in it and wash your face 2 times a day.

Look for dr dray in youtube for her recommendation to skin care products. She's a board certified dermatologist giving outfree advise on youtube

On 7/30/2021 at 8:06 PM, Let me die said:

I read that inflammation of acnewill impede the healing of any treatment. I heard from my dermatologistacne will cause scarring even though you did not press it.
It is possible to get clear face just control your diet. Try eliminate dairy and sugar totally.
Avoid foodsthat are high in glycemic index (look for keto diet)
Drink more water

Knowing your skin type and choosing the right cleanser is important too. For example if you have oily skin use a cleanser that has salicylic acid in it and wash your face 2 times a day.

Look for dr dray in youtube for her recommendation to skin care products. She's a board certified dermatologist giving outfree advise on youtube

Honestly I don't think I can go through limiting my food. I don't want to go through that process and I also don't want to restrict what I can eat. But even if I did, how likely is it that my diet would affect anything if I'm only getting the occasional cyst every 1-2 months?

1 hour ago, acknee4life said:

Honestly I don't think I can go through limiting my food. I don't want to go through that process and I also don't want to restrict what I can eat. But even if I did, how likely is it that my diet would affect anything if I'm only getting the occasional cyst every 1-2 months?

High Insulin level causes inflammation and affect hormones in a negative way.

Severity of Cystic acne is related to your hormones.

1 cyst is bad enough. It is very easy to scar with cystic acne. Scar is permanent, costly and troublesome to fix.prevention is alwaysbetter than cure.

Try eliminating dairy and sugar and keep to a low GI diet to see an improvement in your cystic acne

Or just try 30 days if you have doubts. Eliminating dairy and sugar will see your skin improve. Sugar causes sebum production to go into overdrive

do a food allergy test with adermatologist to see which are the foods you are allergic to and eliminate them

Or an alternative way is to take accutane for your cystic acne if you don't want to limit your food intake.

But accutane does harm to your body and is not for long term

1 hour ago, Let me die said:

High Insulin level causes inflammation and affect hormones in a negative way.

Severity of Cystic acne is related to your hormones.

1 cyst is bad enough. It is very easy to scar with cystic acne. Scar is permanent, costly and troublesome to fix.prevention is alwaysbetter than cure.

Try eliminating dairy and sugar and keep to a low GI diet to see an improvement in your cystic acne

Or just try 30 days if you have doubts. Eliminating dairy and sugar will see your skin improve. Sugar causes sebum production to go into overdrive

do a food allergy test with adermatologist to see which are the foods you are allergic to and eliminate them

Or an alternative way is to take accutane for your cystic acne if you don't want to limit your food intake.

But accutane does harm to your body and is not for long term

It is true all my cystic pimples leave scars. Maybe I can try it out but I don't think 1 month is enough. Last year I think I went through the entire year with like 1 or 2 cystic pimples..was the best year my face ever had lol

I actually just had an appt with my derm where I discussed my occasional cyst and he said he could put me on accutane. He said usually he prescribes it for 5 months. Told me to think about it. I would give it actual thought if I didn't have to stop drinking alcohol lol. Maybe if it was during quarantine. But even then like you mentioned there are possible long term effects.

29 minutes ago, acknee4life said:

It is true all my cystic pimples leave scars. Maybe I can try it out but I don't think 1 month is enough. Last year I think I went through the entire year with like 1 or 2 cystic pimples..was the best year my face ever had lol

I actually just had an appt with my derm where I discussed my occasional cyst and he said he could put me on accutane. He said usually he prescribes it for 5 months. Told me to think about it. I would give it actual thought if I didn't have to stop drinking alcohol lol. Maybe if it was during quarantine. But even then like you mentioned there are possible long term effects.

I was on Accutane for 6 months and it cleared my cysts that I couldn't get rid of for almost a year.It wasn't worth it for me to try to figure out why I got cysts, whether it was stress, diet, pore blockage, etc. I'm extremely happy I got on Accutane and I didn't get any side effects (not saying there aren't any). Definitely didn't get depressed.

I did get scarring in the cystic area. I think it was a combination of having cysts there andgetting cortisone shots on some of them. I would do my best to avoid cortisone shots.

Definitely give up drinking for a while if you must. Cysts suck - for real!

Accutane was about 7 years ago and I haven't had a cyst since. I've had inflamed pimples that looked like cysts but those settled much more quickly than cysts so I don't consider those problematic.