Have I Found a Cure for Acne?
How I stumbled on clear skin at my dentist’s.

For years my skin read like therapist notes. It told a story of loneliness, coffee and cigarette abuse, sleep deprivation and anxiety. Of course, I was careful to conceal the truth with full-coverage foundation. But underneath the makeup, I was all pimples and blotches. Once I started taking care of myself and feeling spiritually OK, I assumed my skin would follow suit. It never did.
I ate beautiful whole foods, got the right supplements, slept in pitch darkness, opened my heart wide, spoke the truth, enjoyed all the bitter and sweet flavors of life without fear, and still, my skin was bad. Inflammation and acne had made a home on my face and most disturbingly, my neck.
Switching to gentle skincare products didn’t help either. I was doing everything the internet told me to do and saw no improvement. I even went to a dermatologist who prescribed some topical treatment that only left my skin more irritated. My acne wasn’t so severe as to justify spending hundreds of dollars more on doctors. I just hoped that if I stayed on course, it would eventually get better on its own. Maybe stressing over my skin, was making it worse.
Meanwhile, I spent more money on makeup than on electricity, and my skin was never allowed to breath. I’m sure that didn’t help. I wore foundation to the beach and even to my scheduled c-section: when I first put my daughter’s face against mine, there was a layer of makeup between us.
Then I went to the dentist. I had no choice. I had been enjoying a toothache for at least a month when I finally made the appointment. You arrived just on time. One of my wisdom teeth was so decayed and infected, it required immediate extraction, along with a round of antibiotics.
I hate antibiotics. We overuse antibiotics. But given that I value life, I did as I was told and took amoxicillin for a week. Within a few days, something unexpected happened: my skin cleared.
It’s been two weeks and my skin is still clear. I can’t believe what I see in the mirror every morning. Now I use minimal foundation and only for work. As my skin heals from years of mild acne, I hope to eschew makeup altogether.
A bit of research tells me amoxicillin was approved by the FDA in the treatment of acne but remains a little known secret. Doxycycline and Erythromycin are far more popular choices when it comes to antibiotics. Would they have worked just as well on my skin? Maybe. I don’t know. It can take a lot of trial-and-error with lifestyle changes and over-the-counter treatments before you even consider antibiotics.
I’m not a doctor of any kind, so please don’t take my advice. But if you’re dealing with even mild acne, you may want to talk with your dermatologist about amoxicillin.
