The live course is free for all CBAM Standard and Premium members, but only Premium members will have access to the recording of this course. There are also 50 free spots for basic members. (If you miss the live course, we are not able to provide you the videos unless you are a premium member).

Acne and Acne scar management remains one of the most challenging topics in aesthetic medicine. Getting updates about the most recent advances in this area considering the number of patients who attend aesthetic and dermatology clinics (dealing with active Acne or the scars of Acne years later), will be an advantage for every aesthetic practitioner.

The world is changing and we must change ourselves. The face is the primary source of information in social perception and you have only one chance to make a good first impression. If you lose that chance you cannot have another first impression. An article published in 2006 showed that you have only 100-ms to make a very good first impression so you should use it wisely.

Our topic in this webinar is acne which is a chronic inflammatory disease with a peak of incidence in adolescence and is the most common diagnosis made by dermatologists. This was not a problem 40 years ago because acne in an adult person is a new thing. A lot of studies have shown that acne vulgaris is now an epidemic in western countries and affects at least 40-54% of people over 25 years. In 1997 Goulden, Clark and Cunliffe defined that adult female acne (or acne after adolescence) is defined traditionally by the presence of acne vulgaris lesions after the age of 25 years so the correct diagnosis is after 25 years old.

At this moment we could say that acne is not an insignificant problem, it is not a self-limiting and cosmetic problem. Acne is a disease. Acne has a lot of negative effects on quality of life: Lack of confidence, social withdrawal, feeling of insecurity and inferiority, limited employment opportunities, functional and interpersonal difficulties at work, and even suicidal tendencies. Modern life has a lot of problems like stress, sleep problems, and bad diet that are associated with acne so we can tell that acne is a modern life disease. Public health issues in acne are frequency of disease, high-cost medical care, and health systems, negative impact on the quality of life, and other associated morbidities.

So we must change something but we must change it by paying attention to details. We must educate the patient, break the myths, and define the goals of treatment, we cannot cure acne but we can improve QOL (quality of life).

First, we must start with a dietary intervention by decreasing the total energy intake, the insulinotropic diary proteins, hyperglycemic carbohydrates and Leucine-rich meat and dairy proteins. By achieving these goals you will reduce over-activated mTORC1 signaling and prevent serious diseases.

Circumstantial evidence was found for non-pharmacological therapies in the treatment of acne vulgaris. However, the lack of high methodological quality among included studies prevented them to draw clear conclusions, regarding a stepwise approach. Non-pharmacological therapies include laser & lights & Radiofrequency, peeling, mechanical treatments, and PRP and fillers. For example, Glycolic acid chemical peels are an effective treatment for all types of acne, inducing rapid improvement and restoration to normal-looking skin. Compared to newer machine-based technologies for acne and acne scars, chemical peeling is affordable and with minimal downtime, and can be performed in any dermatologist’s office. Even though we will talk a lot about non-pharmacological treatments but we still recommend a combined treatment to achieve the perfect results.

It is important to assess the patient’s needs from the beginning and discuss all of that with the patient. Does the patient need resurfacing, lifting/volume, tightening, or surgery/movement? For each of these needs, we have different treatments. Most of the times the patient needs more than one type of procedure, you will never have a patient who comes with only one type of scar that’s why combination therapy plays a significant role and we mostly perform combination therapy. We will teach you which modalities work for what kind of scars.

We mostly perform multimodality treatments because most patients have several acne scar types, acne scars often require restoring volume, enhancing tightening and/or moving tissue along with resurfacing and healing will be optimized when certain modalities (e.g. PRP) are utilized.