Derm says I can spot treat
35 y/o with hormonal jaw acne. My derm prescribed 15% azelaic acid and 0.025% tretinoin in April. I was probably using it incorrectly at first. I was applying tret almost every night and ended up with dryness and purging. I pulled back and let my skin barrier heal. Then I got impatient and started using azelaic acid twice a day and tret once a week, but I was still getting irritated. I went back to my derm and now I’m sticking to azelaic acid in the morning and tret once a week, with the green light to gradually increase to 2-3x/week afterward. Results have been okay so far, but I still get random stubborn breakouts and deep cystic acne.
I asked my derm about spot treating with salicylic acid, and she told me I could actually use tret as a spot treatment but only a tiny amount. Does anyone have experience with this?
She also suggested that if my skin tolerates it, I could skip moisturizer on tret nights since I’ve been doing the sandwich method and just apply tret alone. Thoughts?
So far, using tret as a spot treatment made one pimple come to a head quickly, but now it’s a whitehead that isn’t budging. The deeper cystic one also came to a head faster. Should I keep spot treating with tret until it goes away?