Microneedling while on very low dose of Accutane?

Accutane is a go-to medication for patients with recalcitrant cystic acne. It can reduce pore size and also reduce sebum production in your skin, making it less oily; and in turn, dryer. Accutane can be used to control acne, but patients receiving the medication should be carefully monitored. In terms of skincare, always wear an appropriate sunscreen and reduce direct sun exposure. In my patients, I recommend a good ceramide moisturizer such as Elevase whenever they are on Accutane. This will keep the skin hydrated and reduce the oiliness of the skin that is associated with oil-based moisturizers.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Thank you for your question. I would recommend you finish your Acutane treatment and be cleared by the provider before starting microneedling. It is recommended to wait 6 months after Acutane treatment has ended before starting microneedling. Microneedling will be a great enhancement following your Acutane treatment. best of luck!!

Hello, I would recommend not having a Micro needling treatment while on Accutane.  I would wait at least 6 months to 12 months before having anytime of treatment whether it be microneedling or laser resurfacing.   

Thank you for your question - it is best to wait a year before any penetration to the skin once you have been on Accutane.  A series of Micro-needling should then help with the overall appearance of skin and reformulation of collagen.  Best

Even low doses of Accutane are a contra-indication for any treatment which breaks the surface of the skin.  Accutane increases the fragility of the skin, which makes for poor healing and increases the possibility of scaring.  I advise waiting at least 6 months after your last dose before doing anything which compromises the skin's surface.

Yes, you can with absolute safety based upon evidence. See my latest YouTube video, you can down load the PDFs from there with the consensus and task force studies, obviously the choice is up to your dermatologist, but the evidence is there to demonstrate the safety and change this 6 month wash out ruling. With respects to physicians answering this question, please be up to date with the latest literature before providing evidence based answers. Real self used to be a site whereby evidence based, good medicine was practiced, and advised given not only on experience by Board Certified specialist, but by the most recent advances in medicine. Now as a dermatologist, I can answer questions on root canal therapy, and dentists can now answer questions on laser resurfacing. Once again I say this with respect, as acne scars are difficult to treat medical conditions. 
Acne scar revision is a sub-specialised field. For the best results, one should target the acne scar type with ideal treatments and not just one device. The web reference below will take you to a resource to help you understand acne scar revision at a specialist level. I embedded all the videos in one page to help.

For example deep ice pick scars, and narrow box car scars can be treated with TCA CROSS peels, mixed scars, rolling, and atrophic scars treated with fractional devices such as Fraxel, fractional lasers, PRP and INFINI radiofrequency. Atrophic scars (depressions) can be treated with either fat grafts, or with HA dermal fillers. Tethered and anchored scars are best treated with surgical techniques such as subcision. Other surgical techniques that we use include punch elevation, surgical elevation, punch excision and traditional excision of focal scars.

The majority of patients will have a collection of different scar types, and hence a tailored treatment METHOD will be best. Careful examination, especially under angled lighting with scar mapping will give you an understanding of what are the best options for your scars. In the majority of patients its finding the correct combination that give you best results, and everyone is unique! All the best,

Dr Davin Lim. Acne scar dermatologist specialist. Brisbane, Australia.