Your teenager’s acne: what a medical assessment involves
Most teenage acne settles with time and simple care. Some does not, and the difference matters, because persistent inflammatory acne can leave permanent scarring during exactly the years it is most likely to occur.
Ask us about your child’s skin or read on firstIs this medical or cosmetic?
Acne is a medical condition. It is an inflammatory disease of the hair follicle with a known mechanism, recognised severity grading, and treatments that require prescription and monitoring. It is not a hygiene failure and it is not caused by chocolate.
Where it is mild it is reasonably managed with products from a pharmacy. Where it is moderate or severe, or where it is scarring, it is treated medically — and that is a clinical decision, not a cosmetic preference.
When to bring your child in.
Deep or painful lesions
Rather than surface spots that come and go within days.
Texture is changing
Scarring alters the surface of the skin in a way that marks do not.
Back or chest involved
Not only the face.
A real trial has failed
Three months of consistent over-the-counter care without change.
It is affecting them
Mood, school, or willingness to be around other people. This is often what finally prompts the visit, and it is a reasonable reason to come.
What that means practically.
For patients under 18, a parent or guardian needs to attend the first consultation and give consent. This is not a formality. Some acne treatments require ongoing monitoring and carry considerations that need to be discussed properly with both of you in the room, including — where relevant — matters that are easier to raise once, clearly, at the start than to revisit later.
You are welcome to ask anything during that conversation. So is your child. In our experience it works better when the young person is allowed to answer for themselves where they can.
What is checked, and when.
Where a treatment requires review, the schedule is set out before it begins: how often your child is seen, what is checked at each visit, what would prompt a change of course, and how long the whole thing is expected to run. Reviews are with the same doctor each time, so nothing is re-explained from scratch.
If a proposed treatment carries risks worth weighing, those are set out plainly rather than mentioned in passing. Where the honest answer is that a treatment is not warranted yet, that is what you will be told.
What helps.
Bring a list of what has already been tried and for roughly how long, including anything bought over the counter, and a list of any regular medicines. If there is a family history of significant acne or scarring, that is useful to mention.
Cost, and where to find us.
Acne assessment is $38.15 including GST. Any medicines or tests are charged separately, and you are told what they cost before they are dispensed or arranged. There are no packages and nothing is bundled.
Kitchener Complex, 809 French Road, #02-32, Singapore 200809 — Level 2, less than five minutes from Lavender MRT. Walk in during GP hours, or message us on WhatsApp to arrange a time that suits.
