Everywhere you look these days you’re likely to come across one product or another that claims to be an “acne cure”. We’re faced with this reality every day at the Advanced Acne Institute as patients routinely ask our doctors for an acne cure.

So what do we tell them? Well, that depends. You see, it’s really not as straightforward as you may think. The real answer, of course, is that there really is no such thing as an acne cure. That does not mean, however, that there are not treatments that can work wonders.

Some of them can be so potent that many may be tempted to call one or more an “acne cure”. Nevertheless, the promise of a complete and permanent acne cure cannot be made for any of the medications currently available. Some, however, can result in completely clear skin, albeit temporary. So why not a true “acne cure?”

Well, first of all, not everyone has the exact same type of acne. Therefore, each person requires a little different type of treatment. For example, mild acne can be treated by treatments that would not be strong enough for a patient with severe acne. So a medicine that may lead to an “acne cure” for one type of acne breakout may not work well for a different type of acne.

Although there really is no bona fide acne cure, there is one medication that comes very close. Isotretinoin is a medication that can lead to complete clearing of even the most severe forms of acne. Isotretinoin works by calming the oil glands in acne-prone pores so they never become swollen and inflamed.

It can be near magical to watch a patient with severe cystic acne begin to clear up while taking isotretinoin. This treatment can be so effective that it’s easy to understand why some call it an acne cure. Many patients even stay clear after the treatment is completed.

Not all patients, however, achieve the same results. Some end up with a reoccurrence of their breakouts and may need to take isotretinoin a second or third time. So you see that even a treatment as strong as Isotretinoin is not perfect and therefore not worthy of being referred to as an acne cure.

The will to develop a true acne cure continues to prompt researchers and dermatologists to experiment with a variety of medicines and other treatment devices. Some of these treatments show early results that have “acne cure” written all over them. However, after more testing is done, they have not yet resulted in a bona fide acne cure.

So the bottom line is that, even though there are some medications and treatments that are very effective in clearing up even the most severe forms of acne, there really is no such thing as an “acne cure”.