You're far from alone if you're a teenager who has acne. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that 85 percent of those between the ages of 15 and 24 suffer from pimples, making acne the most common skin condition in the United States. Prescription acne lotions form one of the mainstays of acne treatment, and your dermatologist might prescribe amoxicillin lotion to treat your acne.
Causes
Acne develops from a combination of oily skin and bacterial infection, according to the website MayoClinic.com. Because teenagers tend to have skin that contains excess oil, they suffer from the condition more often than adults. Bacterial infection tends to make acne worse, turning tiny acne lesions into much larger, pus-filled pimples. Topical antibiotics, including amoxicillin lotion, treat the bacterial infection in acne.
Function
Amoxicillin, an antibiotic from the penicillin class of drugs, fights the bacterial infection found in inflammatory acne, according to the website Drugs.com. Doctors commonly prescribe oral amoxicillin for acne, but some also prescribe topical amoxicillin lotion, which you apply directly to your acne lesions. You shouldn't use amoxicillin if you're allergic to any penicillin antibiotic.
Effects
Physicians frequently prescribe topical antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, for inflammatory acne, in which bacterial infection plays a huge role, according to the University of Illinois. Your physician might recommend combining treatment with amoxicillin lotion with another type of topical medication, such as benzoyl peroxide, to make your treatment more effective.
Considerations
In many cases, doctors won't choose amoxicillin lotion as their first line of defense against acne. When choosing a topical antibiotic for a patient, doctors most often turn to clindamycin and erythromycin, two antibiotics that have proven very effective against inflammatory acne, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. However, if your acne doesn't respond well to treatment with one of those preferred drugs, amoxicillin lotion offers another antibiotic treatment option.
Prevention/Solution
To treat acne successfully, you need to adhere to your medication regimen very rigidly, regardless of whether it includes topical amoxicillin or other prescription medications, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. You need to continue using your amoxicillin lotion for as long as your dermatologist recommends, even if your acne clears up while you're using it. If you stop, your acne may return or even get worse.
