Is acne a medical condition?  Well I wouldn’t necessarily say so, and yet there are plenty of rumors out there about the idea that you have to go to a dermatologist to treat it, you have to treat it like a medical condition.  Well, the first argument I might have is that it may well be a medical condition, but so is high cholesterol.  High cholesterol is usually treated even by doctors with diet and exercise.  Do you really need a doctor to tell you that?  I don’t.

But the second big thing I would point out is the fact that unlike other fields and other medical conditions, you can get the same treatments over the counter as you could get through prescription, with the exception of Accutane of course.  Is acne a medical condition?  Well it very well may be, but being a medical condition doesn’t mean it requires medical help.

The most prime example I know of this is a prescription called Epiduo, which actually bases all its advertising around the idea that you need a prescription and no over the counter medication will do.  First of all, they mix two ingredients that according to experts never should be mixed due to greater complications, and second of all, they use a 2.5% concentration of benzoyl peroxide.  That’s the smallest allowable amount, and surprise, guess who else uses it, just about everybody!  In fact, one you might know quite well uses it, or rather quite a few: Proactiv and all its imitators!