Question about rosacea and treatment?
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at
3:16 am
Have you had success with any over the counter treatments? Is cetaphil moisterizing cream good for it, or does it irritate the skin? Do you know any products that you can by without a prescription to take the redness out? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Filed under: Rosacea Treatments
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Rosacea is difficult to treat with any over-the-counter remedies. While there are many products which claim to help reduce sensitivity and redness, few actually produce clinically significant results. Effective rosacea treatment generally requires the involvement of a dermatologist, especially since rosacea can be progressive, becoming worse as time passes. It is important to be gentle with your skin, however, using cleansers for sensitive skin and avoiding anything that scrubs or is too harsh. Washing with water that is overly hot will also aggravate rosacea.
Only if your skin is dry will any sensitive-skin moisturizer help alleviate some of the flaking, if that is one of your symptoms. If your skin is oily, moisturizer will only add oiliness and possibly acne to your skin problems. Cetaphil cleanser is a good option for rosacea, though, but a moisturizer will only ‘moisten’ the skin — it will not treat the underlying condition, but it shouldn’t make it worse.
The only truly effective treatments for rosacea — Finacea, Nicomide-T, Plexion cleanser, and antibiotics (for some patients) all require prescriptions. (There are others, but I mentioned some of the best options.) Finacea is generally the most effective. You can spend a great deal of money on over-the-counter treatments that won’t come close to being as effective as a very small amount of these prescription products.