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Treating acne with wrinkle eraser

Jack Arkins started acne treatments when he was in high school. "It would get better, but then it would kind of come back, that kind of thing. Nothing ever stuck," says Jack.

Now that he's in his twenties, he's had a chance to try a treatment that's really stuck. It's botox. "Patients were saying to me, 'Doctor, I love the BOTOX because I'm not breaking out.' So that's when the light bulb went off in my head. I'm like, 'Huh, is there a reason here? Is there a mechanism of action?'" says Dr. Steven Dayan, a facial plastic surgeon.

Doctor Dayan's 'ah hah' moment inspired a small clinical study with mild to moderate level acne patients. "We had half the face getting placebo, which was just salt water and half the face getting BOTOX, so we had a control," says Dr. Dayan.

Patients received microdose injections of botox just under their skin, "When I'm trying to get rid of wrinkles, I'm injecting the BOTOX into the actual muscle, But this time, I'm injecting it into the skin, just underneath the acne lesion or around the acne lesion. So it's a little different level of treatment," says Dr. Dayan.

The results were noticeable, about 20 percent better on the botox side versus the placebo. Dr. Dayan says he's not entirely sure of the mechanism of action of how the BOTOX reduces the acne lesions. He suggests it could be that it's reducing inflammation.

Jack's pleased with his skin, particularly since results lasted longer than expected. "They thought it would last about three months. I saw it last actually longer, about six months," says Jack.

In a small study, researchers found patients who received botox injections saw an improvement in their acne.

Every year, Americans spend more than 100 million dollars on over-the-counter acne products.