Skincare 101: Do Not Pick At Your Breakouts

Repeat after me: “I will not pick my skin!”

Make this your New Year Resolution to STOP picking your skin, we believe in you!

Acne is a common skin condition that is often associated with teenagers, but bad breakouts and severe skin disorders can affect adults too, especially women.

Acne is a problem in and of itself, but did you know that you could make it worse by continually touching your face and squeezing or popping pimples?

Those destructive habits not only compromise your skin’s integrity, and aggravate your acne, but even worse, picking at your breakouts can lead to severe scarring and hyperpigmentation that ends up lasting longer than the initial breakout.

Picking generally delays the healing of acne lesions, makes them look worse, and can result in new lesions from constant irritation. So treating acne or other underlying conditions is a component of treatment for skin or hair picking. 

Enlist the help of a professional such as Dr. Maryann Mikhail, to help heal your skin and determine a healthy skincare regimen designed for your specific skin type and skin concerns.

Popping that pimple today may seem like the quickest way to make a blemish go away. 

It makes sense: speed up the process, squeeze out the sebum, and get rid of it faster. But picking and popping pimples is actually bad for your skin for a number of reasons. 

Unless you’re a dermatologist, you’re probably not the person who should be pushing, picking, prodding or in any way touching your breakouts. Acne extractions (also known as acne surgery) is a procedure dermatologists do to get rid of clogged pores and prevent breakouts.

Squeezing blackheads, whiteheads, and pimples yourself might seem easy, but problems can happen. You might introduce a bacterial infection, push the contents further in instead of out, and leave permanent scars.

During an extraction, your dermatologist will clean your skin and then use a sterile tool to push out black and white heads. Since clogged pores cause pimples, cleaning them out makes skin smoother and prevents breakouts.

If you have hormonal acne, birth control or spironolactone can help. When all else fails, or if your acne is severe and scarring, isotretinion (accutane) is an option. The important thing is to address it early. For appointments to address your acne and get on the path to clear skin for the New Year, call our office in Fort Lauderdale, FL at 954-666-3736!