Trying to navigate your way through the vast abundance of acne treatments in any drugstore can at best, be a bewildering experience. If you are suffering from acne, the last thing you need is to be presented with row upon row of various treatments, especially when you have no real inclination of which product to try.

Of course you'll always see row upon row of the latest miracle creams or magic wonder pills, all claiming to be clinically proven. On the other hand, you'll see just as many treatments that have been on the market for years, a fact which in itself could suggest they do work. After all, if they did not, how could they still be around and why would people still be buying them?

Like anything else, common sense about how to treat acne is always a good way to go. Let's face it, many times we run to the drug store when we get some medical ailment because we are conditioned to do so.

The grim reality of the matter is, if an acne sufferer does not see immediate visible results, the latest cream or pills will simply join the rest of the collection which now lay abandoned, gathering dust in the back of a cupboard. Repeat this process a few times and you'll soon see that this approach carries a high price.

Before you spend a dime at the drug store, it is a smart move for you and the acne sufferer in your family to take some time and get an education about the disease and what can be done about it. Even if the acne is in an early stage of development and it has not become chronic by any stretch of the imagination, scheduling some time with your doctor or dermatologist is a great idea.

Of course as with any medical condition, the sooner you get treatment, the better. While a dermatologist will treat you at any stage of your condition, if they had the choice, they would want to cure it in the early stages so it stands to reason, the sooner you make an appointment, the better.

While you are with the doctor, talk about over the counter medications and what is the best choice for the acne sufferer in your life. He or she will be able to guide you to narrow down the choices because you will have more information about the kind of acne your teenager is facing.

Furthermore, rather than any specific brand being effective, it's the active ingredients in those brands which provide the cure, or at least an improvement. With this in mind, discuss the various active ingredients with your dermatologist as this will help you decide on a suitable product when you next visit the drugstore.

Yes of course there are treatments which work, as well as all those which don't, but having said that, it would be unrealistic to expect a single treatment to be a total cure. The fact remains, the most powerful tool in combating acne is good personal hygiene, coupled with a healthy diet and an active lifestyle.

If the desire to change his or her lifestyle because of the acne results in a healthy way of life over all, the win of beating pimples will just be a small part of the improvements these steps will make in his or her life.