Derm RF

Dermatology 911

July 12, 2010 at 4:09 pm Dr. Katie Rodan

By Dr. Katie Rodan

Patient Name: Julie*

Gender: Female

Age: 54 years old

Concern: pores

Doctor’s Notes:

I saw Julie, a new patient, last week; she was very concerned with her pores because this problem was new to her and appeared very quickly. Julie said she had always been very diligent and involved with her skincare. She stays out of the sun, follows a daily anti-aging routine, and even gets Botox injections every few months. And it shows; she had very few lines and wrinkles.

But her pores were large and distracting. And I can understand her frustration; it’s hard to invest time doing what you think is right only to be confronted with yet another skin concern. Had she realized the importance of treating her pores early on, as she did with preventing lines and wrinkles, I wouldn’t have even needed to meet with her. But Julie focused on lines and wrinkles and ignored her pores until her mirror showed that her pores demanded attention. She’s not alone in this—it happens to a lot of people. And that’s because pores are tricky; most people think of them only as a teenage concern and therefore don’t give them a second thought until they appear larger than life on their faces. Once they’re large you can’t shrink them physically—you can only minimize their appearance.

When I saw Julie, her pores were quite visible and our best option to minimize their appearance was to use laser therapy, a very expensive procedure that will ever so slightly reduce the size of her pores. This was disappointing news to deliver.

Learn from Julie’s mistakes and start on a pore-focused routine early to prevent your pores from expanding in the first place. The best pore-focused skincare you can start incorporating is a clay-based cleansing mask. Apply it one to three times a week for approximately two minutes, or until dry, then gently rinse with lukewarm water. This will clean out your pores and keep them small and tight. This extra step doesn’t require much time and it will give you great results. When it comes to pores, at-home solutions early on make all the difference.

*Patient name has been changed to protect privacy

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