I forgot to answer this one. We probably treat 98% of our psoriasis patients with either narrowband UVB and steroid creams, steroid creams alone, or Enbrel. If we use thiazolidenediones to treat psoriasis, I haven’t heard about it.
I just have to ask - what do you mean by “extraction” in this context?
Thanks, Dunawake & Alice! Use the Retin-A less frequently and not on squeaky-clean skin…seems like I ought to have figured that out myself. 
Hi Broomstick! I still haven’t forgotten that zit story you had to tell in installments. :eek:
I was perscribed metrogel for my Rosacea and it worked wonders. My skin is a bajillion times better. Beacause I have Lyme disease, I take an number of antibiotics regularly - among them is Flagyl. I noticed that the Metrogel contains the same type of antibiotic that the Flagyl is. This started me wondering about a few things. I can’t pinpoint exactly when my “Rosacea” started but it may have been around the same time as the Lyme. My problem manifests itself as the tiny little pimple bumps mostly on my forehead and chin - not the blushing redness/dryness that some others have posted about. I wonder if those two conditions are even the same thing. I also wonder if the pimply kind of Rosacea, or for that matter, any kind of acne that is treated with antibiotics, is really just some kind of bacterial infection. Lastly, I’m wondering if there is some kind of correlation between Lyme and Rosacea. Sorry that was a little rambling but I’m kind of thinking out loud.
What do you think about those home electrolysis kits? Have you seen good results with them? Or horror stories?
Guess that makes it obvious that he’s not a dermatologist!
So, trying to lasso the little suckers is my best at-home option? Ugh. I did try snipping one off once. ONCE. Ye gads, those things are just packed with blood and nerves! And it came back. :mad:
As for my insurance, there’s no billing. It’s either covered by my plan or it’s not. Anything non-plan means I need to go out on the open market to a non-plan provider as a cash customer. So, that’s why I was hoping to find the point at which tags might become medically necessary to treat and/or remove.
Okay going to look for a derm.
But astringents are bad?
I have a question…
My face is almost always red. There are times it is a little less but some times it is so red people think I have been in the sun all day and I hardly ever sit in the sun. I don’t think it is Rosacea. I have looked at the website many times and mine is more all over, not blotchy and I don’t have the acne. I mean I get pimples now and then but really not the often.
My face is also oily and itchy and even though I don’t get pimples that often I do get weird white things that resemble pimples but they are hardly raised. If I can pinch them I can get a small amount of white stuff, pus? out in a skinny strand but it is really hard to get out as they are not raised up very much. It almost looks like I have a small white patch under the skin rather than a pimple trying to come up out of the skin, if that makes any sense. And it stays forever. I can pick at it and get some stuff out and it will get smaller but I can only pinch it so much.
I can pretty much pick at any part of my nose and cheeks and get some white stuff to come out of my pours. My pours are also large.
Any suggestions on face cleansers I can use to reduce the redness and the not so pimpley pimples?
I am not aware of any connection between Lyme disease and rosacea- I’ll ask one of the doctors and let you know if he says there is, though.
As for skin tags that are medically necessary to remove, as far as I know, according to insurance companies there is no such thing.
My doctors don’t recommend astringents (or toners) because they can be harsh, and acne-prone skin can react to that by producing more oil, making acne worse. This is also the reason you shouldn’t scrub your skin or overcleanse it.
I don’t know anything about home electrolysis kits, really. Sorry.
SomeUserName, your redness really could be rosacea. It doesn’t have to have pimples to be rosacea- but it could be sun damage, some medication you take, etc. The white things under the skin- sounds like milia, which are very small cysts, not related to acne. For 100 bucks I could clean those up for you. Eucerin (and Aveeno?) makes a redness-reducing lotion. Try that and green makeup. Nothing topical will help milia that I know of.
I take no medication but I did live in the sun in my younger years. I am 38 now and I rarely go in the sun.
I will try the redness reducing lotions.
What is green makeup? I don’t wear any make up at all, haven’t for years.
Just makeup with a greenish tint to it- counters the redness.
Is there an effective way to get rid of black heads from nose pores?
Since no one else is asking, I’ll jump in with a question about warts.
I’ve have a wart on my thumb that just won’t go away. In the last 9 months I’ve had it zapped with Liquid Nitrogen on 4 separate occasions and now it’s bigger than ever. Are they any other treatment options that may be more effective than the LN? Also, once I have it removed the next time, is there anything in particular that I can do to prevent it from coming back? Like replace any gloves that I might wear? (I know that sounds silly, but I really want it gone for good…)
My son has had a small mark on the back of his neck since birth that is the size of a dime and is white. Like seriously, snow white. Although his paternal grandfather has vitaligo I was told not to worry about it because it was just a birthmark.
He’s now 6 and the spot has not spread so I guess I was wrong, but are there white birthmarks? When he tans in the summer it is much more noticeable. It’s weird looking and kind of cool. It’s like a totally white tattoo. Is there any relation to the vitaligo?
I had a serious skin cancer removed from my head; Bloody, gory, pictures here. The entire procedure was done over five weeks in the dermatologists office. Would your doctors have done this procedure in office or would I have been hospitalized?
Yes- we extract them (I & D) in the office, or you could try those Biore strips. I’ve heard they work pretty well.
Yes, there are several treatments for warts besides LN. We use Cantherone, which is a liquid from a beetle- we put it on, you leave it for a few hours, then wash it off. It blisters, then callouses, we pare the callous off, and repeat until the wart is gone. For very stubborn warts, we can dessicate it with a cauterizer. Then there’s Aldara cream you apply at home. I don’t know of anything you can do to prevent them from coming back, really, as it’s a virus.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a white birthmark, but if it hasn’t spread it’s probably not vitiligo. If it ever changes in pigment or size you may want to have it checked but if not I wouldn’t worry about it.
Actually, we would have sent you to a “Moh’s” surgeon to remove that. It looks like that’s what you had done, but we don’t do it ourselves. We have one guy that we refer to that that’s all he does. Your derm must do Moh’s in his office, but we don’t. We do perform wider excisions on skin cancers sometimes in office, which is more like a real surgery than a biopsy is, but only on certain body parts and if it’s not too deep. I hope you are protecting your skin and getting regular skin checks! Was it a squamous cell?
What an interesting thread. Thankyou Alice, I’ve learned a lot.
I have psoriasis which developed when I was about six. I don’t bother to get any treatment since it seems that I must have a percentage of my body with psoriasis on it. If it clears up in one place, it appears in another. I’m fine with it but I do find that the skin on my face is excessively dry although there is generally no psoriasis there now. It is much drier than the skin on the rest of my body, even exposed areas. What can I do to lessen this? (Should add that I cleanse and moisturise daily which helps some).
Office visits work best. I’ve only gotten about 25% of the remaining ones per strip (diminishing returns and all that). Not that I’m asking for any big easy ones, where the the receptionist yells ‘Run for your lives!’ and evacuates the waiting room in fear of an eruption…
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know where Ima gonna go when the pustule blows…!
Yes, it was Mhos surgery but it was horrendous; I’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty skin cancers removed and this was the worst yet. I grew up in Texas back in the 1940s and 1950s and was badly sunburned several times. I’ve been paying for it since I was in my 40s. I see my dermatologist every six months; in fact, I will be having another surgery on the back of my neck in a few weeks. And yes, the one on my head was a squamous cell.