What is Treclin gel?
Treclin gel is a treatment for moderate acne that contains two active ingredients. Typically you’ll apply a pea-sized amount to the affected areas of your skin, once a day, in the evening before you go to bed. You should start to see the benefits from Treclin within a couple of weeks, but in some cases it can take a month or two before you notice an improvement.
Acne vulgaris (normally just shortened to acne) is a common condition, and the most common cause of spots. It usually happens due to a change in your hormone levels as you go through adolescence, and carries on into early adulthood - but it can happen to people younger and older, too.
It’s caused by your skin’s sebaceous glands producing too much of a substance called sebum (a normal part of your skin which helps to keep it moisturised). When there is too much sebum on your skin, it encourages the bacteria on your skin to feed off of it, and create waste products that clog and irritate your pores. This, then, creates spots and acne.
How does Treclin gel work?
Treclin’s two active ingredients: tretinoin and clindamycin, work together to unblock your pores and treat the cause of your acne. Clindamycin is an antibiotic, which helps to stop the bacteria on your skin from growing and multiplying. And tretinoin helps to prevent the build up of sebum by encouraging the shedding of dead skin cells that block your hair follicles. Both of these ingredients have been shown to work better together than either of them alone.
This ‘dual action’ can make Treclin particularly effective, as it can eliminate two potential causes of blocked pores, and counter your acne more effectively as a result.
What doses of Treclin gel are there?
There’s only one strength of Treclin gel, which is 10 mg (1%) clindamycin and 0.25 mg (0.025%) tretinoin per gram of the gel. You should use Treclin gel exactly as you’ve been instructed to - don’t use more of it than you’ve been told to to try to make it more effective, and make sure you use it for the length of time that you’ve been told to, even if your skin has improved. If you’re still not happy with the results after twelve weeks of using it as prescribed, talk to our clinician. You might need to try another treatment.