When Acne Doesn't Respond: The Treatment Ladder, Its Limits, and What Comes Next

Most acne patients arrive having already tried something. Drugstore benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. Then a prescription retinoid or an antibiotic course. For the ones who keep breaking through, isotretinoin becomes the conversation. Each step works for a portion of patients, and each step has a ceiling.

Meena Singh, MD, FAAD, walks the ladder from the bottom up. What over the counter care actually accomplishes and where it stops. What prescription therapy solves and what it does not. Where isotretinoin fits, who declines it, and what happens to the patients who cannot tolerate it or relapse after it. She then makes the case for the Aerolase Neo Elite as the next step for the patients the ladder does not reach. Backed by clinical outcomes data, the Neo Derm's 650-microsecond 1064nm pulse targets the inflammation and sebaceous activity that drive acne while clearing the post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation left behind, and safely across Fitzpatrick I through VI. Closing with what this means for your practice: the patients who have exhausted the ladder are the ones most likely to leave, and how the Neo Derm gives you something new and effective to offer them.

Key Takeaways:

• What over the counter care realistically achieves, and the point at which patients outgrow it
• Where prescription topicals and antibiotics succeed, and where they plateau
• Isotretinoin candidacy, patient hesitancy, and relapse rates
• Clinical outcomes for the Aerolase Neo Elite in acne
• How the Neo Elite addresses inflammation, sebaceous activity, and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation together
• Treatment sequencing and session cadence across all skin types
• How to retain patients who have already tried everything

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Register to watch this live webinar on August 27 at 8:00pm ET!

Presented by Meena Singh, MD

Meena Singh, MD, FAAD, is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon and medical director of the Skin and Hair Center in Overland Park, Kansas. She attended Harvard Medical School, trained at the Mayo Clinic, and completed a procedural fellowship with the International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery. She is also trained in Mohs micrographic surgery. Dr. Singh's clinical focus is ethnic skin and hair, and she has conducted clinical trials in laser therapy. She has published in peer-reviewed dermatology journals and co-authored a textbook on hair transplantation.