Consider Zero Therapy

Hi everyone! I've been dealing with perioral dermatitis for four months now and I started zero therapy about five or six days ago. I'd like to share what I've learned after talking with my dermatologist, doing tons of research, and hearing people's stories. I posted lots of this as a comment on someone's post earlier but figured I'd make it more known.

***Disclaimer: I'm not saying zero therapy will work for everyone but it's first line treatment in certain countries for a reason.

What I learned is that perioral dermatitis needs to breathe. It’s skin inflammation. Dermatologists prescribe oral doxycycline and antibiotics not for their antibiotic properties, but because at low doses they works as an anti inflammatory. Even metro cream and azelaic acid are mainly prescribed because they have anti inflammatory properties, not mainly because they are antibacterial. My own dermatologist told me that as well. But the thing with any cream that says it's supposed to be "anti inflammatory" is that we can't be sure with P.D. that it truly is, since the skin is so inflamed and irritated. Most people I've come across say that these prescription creams irritate things further. And lots of people state that after stopping oral antibiotics their P.D. just returns. Because the inflammation that was being suppressed just comes back again.

If I think back to when my perioral dermatitis started getting worse, it was when I was trying lots of new creams and treatments for it. I was wondering why all these “holy grail” creams weren’t working for me like Avene cicalfate, LRP Cicaplast, diaper rash cream, any sort of moisturizer, and it’s because they essentially sit on top of the skin and trap any inflammation that’s underneath and aggravate it. Topical prescriptions? Azelaic acid and metro cream? Yeah no. Just aggravated my skin more. The P.D. skin is too sensitive for anything to be put on it right now. My skin wouldn’t stop burning when I used topical creams of any sort, especially thick ones like Cicaplast or Cicalfate or diaper rash cream since the irritation was trapped.

Some people have been dealing with perioral dermatitis for YEARS and I really think it's because they keep trying 1000 different products... when the skin wants to be LEFT ALONE. Zero therapy is the FIRST line of treatment in some countries because they recognize that you need to let the skin heal on its own. ANYTHING and I mean anything that you put on your skin can make things worse since it’s so inflamed and irritated. Even gentle cleansers and moisturizers. PD is NOT just dry skin that needs moisturize. It’s inflammation that needs to be left alone. Do we treat inflammation by smothering it, not letting it breathe, and applying potentially irritating antibiotics and other creams? No. We LEAVE IT ALONE. We do NOTHING. We do nothing so there's no potential for irritation. We lose the potential for irritation when we stop using anything and give the skin a chance to heal on its own. Zero therapy is the true anti-inflammatory approach. The ONLY one, actually.

Zero therapy is HARD and it takes a lot of self control to feel the dryness and not put anything on it. Not even cleanser. No moisturizer. Distilled water to rinse with or Hypochlorous acid spray is fine I’ve heard for this time. But your skin will start to heal on its own and flake off and this is KEY because that means it’s sloughing off all the dermatitis and getting ready to reveal new skin underneath. Yes it's hard. I have keratosis pilaris on my cheeks and it’s so hard letting it get super dry and getting more bumps. But guess what? Since starting zero therapy, I have NO MORE BURNING! The burning has stopped. My skin was burning daily for four months and yup, it was because I was using all sorts of creams. Sure with zero therapy I feel dry, and I live in Canada and it’s wintertime… but the redness seems to be fading, the bumps aren’t spreading, and I can see my skin starting to flake off at this point.

Zero therapy can take a few weeks to months depending how bad your P.D. is. I’m noticing flaking already and improvements in six days.

If you feel like you've tried every cream, prescription, and option out there and things aren't getting better, consider DOING NOTHING. Literally. Zero therapy.