Dermabrasion involves planing the skin to a smooth consistency, using a diamond chip disc rotating extremely fast. This is attached to a hand-held electric apparatus like a dental drill. It can be done in a dermatologist’s office, using an appropriate local anaesthetic spray which also freezes the skin to make it firm to work with. This procedure is limited to severe and well-localized scarring, but should not be performed during the active stage of the condition. It does not require hospitalization, and the patient is usually able to return to normal activities within ten to fourteen days.

Superficial X-ray therapy used to be a form of treatment but is not generally recommended nowadays.

Squeezing or picking the ubiquitous pimple is certainly in advisable. Injudicious interference will possibly result in expressing most of the infective material, but some will invariably be pushed deeper, causing continuing problems. Furthermore, as a result, healing is prolonged and scarring a common consequence.

The place of diet in the management of acne is still controversial. This is due mainly to the difficulty of running a well controlled, matched, double-blind trial. However, in practice, many patients derive considerable improvement from avoiding certain derivatives of the cocoa bean, including chocolate, cocoa, cola and also coffee. Similarly, iodized salt and bromides frequently aggravate the condition. Yet there seems to be no evidence to implicate high fat, sugar-containing or milk-based foods.

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