Kinds of Age Specific Acnes
For the last decades, cases of acne in varying age levels had been significantly rising. A published study known as Prevalence of Facial Acne on Adults suggested that the current mean age for acne patients treated these past ten years range from 20.5 to 26.5 years old.
Nowadays, acne is no longer considered as puberty-related disease, rather a skin disorder that at times may become severe skin diseases. A number of infants had been noted to be born with acne, however this cleared off a few months following birth. Though this is true, infants born with this skin disorder are more prone to acquire acne later on their lives.
Interestingly, a comparison of acne occurrence between males and females were observed. Female infants are less likely to have infantile acne than that of males. Then, in puberty, teenage girls have lesser acne than boys. In adulthood though, males have lesser chance of becoming infected with acne than females.
Fundamentally, acne is a universal skin disorder. Meaning, there are no specific factors why people acquire this disease; in a sense urbanisation is out of question. People all-over the world has equal risk of being affected with this skin disease.
Acne is categorized into two groups, the mild form that is treated externally and the severe form, which must be addressed by a dermatologist, often requiring oral treatments by means of antibiotics.
If acne cases are based on the severity of affection, they can be categorized into papule, comedo, nodule, pustule, and cyst types.
The simplest form of acne is a red lesion or swelling found on the surface of the skin due to bacterial attack on the tissue called comedo. Propionic bacterium or P. acnes is a bacteria that generally lives on the skin that may cause the acne occurrence through it’s production of certain chemicals and enzymes which decomposes the tissue wall in order to penetrate the hair canal.
This action results into the swelling, pain and redness that cause the comedones to form. If the comedo is open, the surface of the skin tissue is black due to oil deposits and is called as “blackhead”. If the comedo is close, the skin has skin-colored bumps called as “whiteheads”.
On the other hand, papules are very small and may give a rough skin appearance like that of sand paper.
When the lesion is secreted with pus, the term is changed into “pustule”. If in case the pustules are harshly inflamed, the lesions are filled with semi-liquid and liquid materials composed of dead cells, bacteria and white blood cells. These in turn are called “cysts” which can become painful and may penetrate deeper layers of skin tissues and may often leave scars.
Acne has different names according to different skin conditions. Acne vulgaris, the most common type, often appears with whiteheads and blackheads. If acne has changed form and manifests on middle-age individuals, its name is changed into Acne rosacea.
Acne rosacea does not have openings on its pores. Usually, it only gives rough appearance on the skin surface because of the bumpy nods on the forehead, cheeks and chin. It is difficult to get rid of Acne rosacea and the infected skin is almost always impossible to be cured of this type. It may leave a bumpy nose surface, which is called Rhynophyma.
Furthermore, Acne cystica is the most severe form of this skin disorder. Deep inflammation fills the pus nodes and in case the pus bursts, this will infect the skin tissue rather than the skin surface alone. Severe inflammation and deep infection may lead to cyst formations that may leave permanent scars on the skin.
Another form of is Acne fulminance. This type is rare, characterized by systematic weight loss, fever and other critical condition. Generally, acne fulminance manifests in boys.
Aside from these given acne forms, there exists other types like Acne infantilis, Acne connglobata and Acne pustulosa.
|
