Has anyone here done a full rosacea treatment with a dermatologist?

It’s self-diagnosed, but I’m pretty sure what I have is rosacea, and it started in earnest last winter (when I was 42). I have had stuff come and go in the past. It is not horrible; I can live with it at its current stage. I am also treating it with essential oils, etc., and they seem to be working to some extent.

I am reluctant to go to a dermatologist for the following reasons:

  1. It sounds as though one is given topical and oral antibiotics and that the course of treatment is pretty long. So that’s a pain.

  2. It sounds as though the success rate is fairly iffy, and if even it gets knocked out at first, it can come back rather easily.

  3. The time and money for the above.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you went and your rosacea was nuked and now it’s all good. If I hear some success stories, I may be motivated to try that.

Thanks for your stories and advice!

Many years ago I saw my doctor about it and he prescribed Metrogel and a course of antibiotics. Didn’t do a thing. Granted, he isn’t a dermatologist, but I understand that that’s the first thing they try anyway.

I did a bit of research on my own, and apparently there a different forms of it, all triggered by different things, some of them contradictory. Get too hot and it triggers, get too cold and it triggers. Caffeine, alcohol, aspartame, stress, the list goes on. I have yet to figure out what my trigger is, exactly, and it’s been over ten years I’ve had it. Probably always will. I’ve got it under control enough to satisfy me, but it would be nice to have it gone.

I found that what works best for me is a facial moisturizer. (Insert rude joke here) I used a moisturizer produced by a doctor in very small quantities that worked to knock it down early on, but he doesn’t do that anymore. I then used MK Men moisturizer which also has sunblock. Works well, but pricy. Lately, I’ve been using a Neutrogena moisturizer from the grocery store. It works well too. I guess dry skin and the sun are two of my triggers, but stress will do it too. Oh, and too much booze.

I’m rambling and not exactly answering the OP, but what I’m trying to get at, is that the doctor didn’t do much, and try to figure out your triggers on your own.

I don’t know if what I’ve done constitutes “full treatment” but here goes:

1. It sounds as though one is given topical and oral antibiotics and that the course of treatment is pretty long. So that’s a pain.

I told my dermatologist I didn’t want to be treated with antibiotics, and she was OK with that. I have rosacea with redness and broken capillaries but not real pimple breakouts. I apply Finacea twice a day but don’t do much of anything else. I don’t know if it really helps with the redness but I keep it up because it does a very mild acid peel everyday which makes my face feel nice. :slight_smile: My understanding is that the low-level antibiotics for rosacea are life long. Rosacea is an infammation problem, and low level tetracycline helsp keep the inflammation in check. You don’t get “cured.”
2. It sounds as though the success rate is fairly iffy, and if even it gets knocked out at first, it can come back rather easily.

Again, I don’t think rosacea is curable - I think all they can do is try to manage your symptoms.

I spent far too much money on intense pulsed light therapy that didn’t seem to do much to tone down the redness and dilated capillaries.

Thanks, guys, good information!

I have thought about my own triggers, but I haven’t noticed anything, really. For me a moisturizer definitely helps, so I do use various things.

Mine can come and go at a very rapid rate. Sometimes in the same day, it can go from normal-looking to quite red in spots. And it can change over the course of several days as well. It makes it hard to figure out what’s working on it.

The dermatologist told me there was no cure for rosacea, so any treatment is bound to be permanent. And yeah what they basically do is try to find out what is the minimum amount of antibiotics you need to keep it managed. My mother, who had a much much stronger form of rosacea than mine couldn’t handle the antibiotics they had her on so she stopped completely and started washing her face with baking soda mixed with the mildest soap possible (cetaphil face washer i believe) and this completely cleared her face up. It worked for me and my much milder case also.

Add me to the “Metrogel didn’t do a damn thing” list. I can’t remember if I’ve been on antibiotics for it or not. At any rate, I have not seen a dermatologist for it for at least 10 years, and the lack of treatment has not made it any worse.

I am trying a salve that has propolis in it. It’s making my skin nice and soft. Can’t tell if it’s having any effect on the rosacea, but it’s supposed to good for any kind of inflammation.

My rosacea was diagnosed by my primary doctor, who had it himself. Metrogel helps in my case. And through trial and error, I have found skincare products that don’t aggravate my rosacea (brands marketed as mild, for sensitive skin, etc) and products that flare it up badly (products marketed as anti-aging, for example).

The type of treatment really depends on the type of rosacea. You’ve got your erythematotelangiectatic rosacea, papulopustular rosacea, ocular rosacea, and phymatous rosacea. So you need to get a good diagnosis first, before embarking on treatment.

But: There are some general helpful tips for typical rosacea patients. General measures to improve symptoms of flushing, erythema, and skin irritation can be beneficial. Avoid the triggers which cause flushing, practice gentle skin care and sun protection. Cosmetic camouflage is a useful adjunct for some folks.

If those measures aren’t sufficient, you really need to work with a doc who’s at least a bit knowledgeable about rosacea. Fortunately lots of primary care docs can handle that. If yours can’t a dermatologist is your best bet.

Thanks for the additional input!

Interestingly, I very, very rarely blush or flush. I may have blushed once in the last five years? I used to happen to me now and then as a kid (still wasn’t common), but now it’s quite rare and limited to truly embarrassing episodes.

Perfect :). I have the papulopustular kind, and I treat some simple rosaceas. Mine got better with sunblock (non comedogenic) mixed half and half with Metrogel, and then really improved after I had my gall bladder out (??). Woo or not, I’m also very gluten intolerant without having celiac, and the dietary change seemed to help too. We are fortunate to have a dermatologist in the clinic, and since I rarely yank him over for a nothing, he’s very willing to do an in room consult :slight_smile:

Ocular rosaceas are best managed with both derm and ophthalmology. They can be miserable.

On my worst days, I have woken up with some pretty dry and scratchy eyes, but it has been tolerable.

I actually cut wheat out of my diet in 2012 and since then have never eaten wheat on purpose (i.e., no cheating).

I made my new anti-rosacea oil mix tonight… I’ll let you know how it goes!

By the way, I have also been using the Prosacea ointment, which contains sulfur. It’s hard to tell if it’s helping, but I do know that my daily rosacea is a lot better than it was last winter. So I’ll probably keep using that for now too.

I also just started washing my face with witch hazel daily. That is something I used as a teen that seemed to help with my basic teen acne.

I’ve seen two different dermatologists over the past 5-6 years and they have prescribed me several pills and topical creams and can’t recall all of the names, but currently taking Minocyn (100mg, 2x/day) and I don’t think it’s doing much. I recently started using Mirvasa, a topical ointment, and it really works but only for about 4 hours at a time. I don’t like to use it more than once a day unless I have something important at night like a meeting for work, or something. I’ve tried Finacea and it didn’t help at all. But just this weekend I was walking through a health/wellness-themed street fair and there was a booth selling creams and ointments, and one of them supposedly helps rosacea. I picked up a small jar and have used it for a few days, and I can’t tell yet if it’s doing much, but they had a money-back guarantee so I’ll try it for a couple weeks to see if it helps over time.

I haven’t figured out what my triggers are yet.

My problem with Rosacea / seborrheic dermatitis started a couple of decades ago. Then, they didn’t have many of the treatments discussed in this thread.

I had treatment with Metrogel, topical steroids, ocular steroids, and antibiotics. Metrogel did nothing for me. The topical steroids did help, but you can only use them for a short time, and the rebound symptoms were awful. My forehead would turn bright red. The ocular steroids (tobradex) was great, when I needed it. When the rosacea got in my eyes, there were times when I couldn’t leave a darkened room. Tobradex would knock it right down. I couldn’t tell how much help the antibiotics actually did because they were used in conjunction with other treatments.

One thing I will say, however, is never use Accutane. It’s a nasty, nasty drug. It dries out EVERYTHING, and gave me paroxysms of itchings.

After getting off everything and just living with the symptoms for a while, I had the opportunity to take ONLY tetracycline. I’ll be damned if that didn’t clear everything up! I stayed on tetracycline for many years, up until you could no longer get it in the US.

I’ve stopped everything now. I don’t seem to have many symptoms anymore. Maybe it’s just age, or maybe the long-term antibiotic use fixed it.

J.

I have had rosacea forever. Did metrogel until it got stupidly high in price. Worked ok but not great. Dr. suggested oracia (sp?) which worked great but then my insurance stopped covering it. He then put me on 50 mg of doxycycline which worked like a charm and life was great until some asshole bought up all all the plants that made it and increased the price from 10 bucks a month to 100 bucks a month:mad::mad:

It is now back down to about 35 bucks a month so I don’t take it every other day anymore.

Oh, and I have had ocular rosacia which scared the crap out of me. This is the reason I take the doxy on a semi regular basis.

Is there any causal relationship between demodex mite and rosacea?

Does arachnicide reduce signs and symptoms?

I’ve been told by a few people that I have rosacea, but I’ve never been formally diagnosed or anything. I have a naturally rosy complexion to begin with, and it just gets more vivid with temperature changes, alcohol, spicy food, etc. It’s been years since I’ve broken out in those tiny bumps. I’ve had no other symptoms. It’s never bothered me :shrug:

AFAIK it has a hereditary component. I was too young at the time, but family friends remember my dad’s complexion behaving the same way. Back then they blamed it on his Irish/English background.

My dermatologist said rosacea is much more common amongst people with certain ethnicities.

Rosacea didn’t bother me much back when it was just flushing. Now that I have permanent redness over my entire face it makes me self conscious. The only thing I can really do about it is start wearing makeup, which I don’t want to do.

In case anyone is interested in tetracycline, there was a shortage for about 2 years but the FDA lists the problem as resolved as of March of this year, so tetracycline should be widely available again.