Do teenagers nowadays get less acne than before?

I see very few teenagers nowadays with the kind of face-disfiguring acne that I and others experienced as teenagers during the 2000s. Has the bacteria which causes acne been subdued over the years by widespread antibiotic use? Are kids diets improved on those of 10 - 15 years ago? When I was a teenager, no amount of face washing, showering, cleanliness could get rid of bad acne, and even when I would occasionally go months eating an almost perfect diet, acne would remain. Really messed my head up at the time knowing I looked atrocious.

On the other side of the timeline of history, severe acne, or acne in general, doesn't seem to have been widespread prior to the 1990s at least, if old photographs and video footage is a reliable source of information on the subject. I'd say the increased rates during the 2000s arose due to people having more sugar/fat/nice food in their diets along with an actual increase in the existence of the bacteria which causes acne - when you think of it, the bacteria had to actually come into existence at some point in order for acne to come into existence. I read before that in some people, high and/or fluctuating levels of blood sugar from a high sugar diet interacted with the bacteria and other hormonal factors to lead to acne in people susceptable to it.

So, did you have acne and do you think it is less common and/or less severe than it used to be?

RayM

I remember sitting down to eat a plate of beans when I was a teenager. Turns out it wasn't beans at all - someone had left a mirror on the table.

2RockMountain

It is certainly fair to say that many teenagers today spend an AWFUL lot more on their appearance than teenagers of my era. €100+ make-up brushes for the girls, designer labels on every item of clothing, compulsory braces on their teeth etc.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

They just hide it better nowadays.

Hande hoche!

Lower resolution photos in the past may have made it less noticeable.

Badly Drunk Boy

When I read the thread title, I thought "Yeah, now that I think about it..." but then I thought a bit more and realised that I've virtually no dealings with teenagers and so wouldn't notice such things.

Jimbob1977

Acne still exists.

As a previous poster said, the girls disguise the acne with excellent makeup. If you remove the makeup, it's very apparent.

The boys just have to live with it.

An unfortunate 'rite of passage' for certain teenagers.

Gwynplaine

Thread title reminded me of a chap from school who had very bad acne. Cruelly nicknamed, Pizzaface.

Potential Underachiever

Ach nae.

Shannon757

As a teenager, I don't get acne and neither do most of my friends. I mean so people are affected big time from it but most in my school seem to be fine. But you wouldn't know with the layers of make up girls are wearing.

cml387

There are effective treatments nowadays that weren't available in the black and white days.

suicide_circus

you're probably hanging out with fewer teenages than you used to

MonkieSocks

Hard to Spot them these days

Badly Drunk Boy

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

When I read the thread title, I thought "Yeah, now that I think about it..." but then I thought a bit more and realised that I've virtually no dealings with teenagers and so wouldn't notice such things.

suicide_circus wrote: »

you're probably hanging out with fewer teenages than you used to

Yeah I was thinking maybe this is it. I still think there is something in it though because it seems *so* conspicuous that I never see the extreme kind of acne in particular that would have been present on maybe 1 person in 20 in my approximate circle of peers when I was a teenager, when I pass a group of teenagers in a shopping centre for instance.

BabyE

Girls have horribe acne, makeup is a scaaaaam

Galwayguy35

I remember a few lads in school had it fairly bad, don't remember any of the women with it though.

BabyE

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I remember a few lads in school had it fairly bad, don't remember any of the women with it though.

Makeup men have better skin naturally that women

Dr Crayfish

I don't know any teenagers so I can't really comment. I had it as a teenager for a while, nothing worked for it despite the old wives tales even bloody strangers seemed to dole out to me all the time. Then one day I went to a dermatologist, who prescribed me roaccutane, it cleared up after 2 months and never came back. If I only had seen the dermatologist years earlier it would have saved me a lot of grief, it's a terrible thing for a teenager to deal with. So if you have kids around that age and you see it happening, get them to a dermatologist as soon as you can

wakka12

Most teenage girls have blotchy, red, uneven skin without makeup. Girls skin is much worse than mens on average, due to hormones I think.

cbyrd

Acne is better treated now as its a bacterial infection rather than just 'bad skin' or hormone controlled greasy skin. Also the over use of products such as clearasil and other harsh oil removal liquids actually make it worse.
It's usually treated now with low level antibiotics and antibiotic creams over a 3-6 month period.
Any amount of clean eating won't clear acne.

Boom_Bap

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