What are the best methods to treat severe large pores that existed for many years? (photo)

Doctor's Answer

Your concern about those large pores are shared by many. At 26, your skin still looks pretty sebaceous - still on the oily side - which is normal at your age. No matter what treatment you choose to do, I think the most important part is to retard/ prevent what is causing the open pores in the first place. Even with the best treatment that improves the skin texture, continued excessive sebum secretion will still cause the large pores to reappear.

Consider using a retinoid regularly to control sebum secretion. Retinoids are a medical grade topical medication that can help reduce sebum secretion, which in turn also helps reduce the formation of whiteheads and blackheads. Once the sebum secretion is better controlled, you can step down to less intensive retinols. Incidentally, retinols/ retinoids are good and cost-effective anti-ageing products.

While controlling the sebum secretion, you can consider treatments that can help improve on those existing large pores:

1) Fractional CO2 laser: Long regarded as the gold-standard for minimally invasive skin resurfacing, this laser creates micro-channels on the upper layers of the skin, and our skin's natural response to such an 'injury' is to produce more collagen and a host of other substances to build up/ regenerate our skin matrix. Over a few treatments, the pores gradually become shallower and less obvious.

2) Rejuran: This is one of the newer option of skin rejuvenation. Composed of polynucleotides (PN) derived from salmon cells, and PN being the building blocks of DNA, this actives our skin cells to regenerate and repair. Skin texture, pore size improvements are among the potential benefits of this treatment.

From the resolution of the picture, it's not clear if those 'large pores' are really just pores. Some of them may actually be atrophic acne scars, for which other treatments are available for better results. Do consult a doctor for a better evaluation.

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