I'm dermatologist Dr Abby Waldman I am a board-certified dermatologist with eight years of experience I am also assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and I going to get you started on Tron Owen for wrinkles or acne with little irritation or pain so let's get to it this video is for you if you are a beginner if you are a naive to troan or if you have failed in the past because of irritation redness scaling and you want to give it another try whether you are using it for anti-aging wrinkles acne pigmentation you'll learn the best way to apply what skin changes to expect both the good and the bad and some hacks for optimizing use so first off what is the right way to apply troin so you are going to use a p size amount this is a p this is a p size amount it's about 2 to three pumps you're going to apply it on your face and your neck to begin with you may want to avoid your eyes and areas around your mouth and nose because those are the most sensitive areas if you've been using troan for a long time often you can use it in the areas around the nose mouth and the eyes but to start aboard those areas when you start you're going to start at night only and every three nights so do not start every night or else you're going to get a lot of peeling a lot of redness and irritation do it every 3 nights or even less just once a week if you have very very sensitive skin you're going to do it every three nights for the first month and then if you're tolerating that okay you're going to apply it every two nights for the second month and then every night as tolerated you're going to apply moisturizer after you put on your tradan so you're going to apply just whatever moisturizer you like and you'll use so as a dermatologist some common complaints that I get about starting tretinoin is redness and peeling and pain it also causes Sun sensitivity which is why you want to use it at night and during the day you're going to use sun protection here are some tips and tricks to deal with these side effects one it is okay to just stay at a few times a week this is a marathon and not a Sprint you're going to get benefits just from using it a few times a week if your skin really doesn't like it using it more frequently do not fret two do not use an chemical exfoliant like an aha BHA on the same night that you use your retinoids at least not consistently both of these can be quite irritating when used to together and so you may end up getting more irritation and redness I recommend if you're using a chemical exfoliant to do this five nights a week and do this two nights a week and that way you'll kind of get the benefits from both but without the incredible irritation from using them both together now everyone's Skin's a little bit different so you might want to play with that and just listen to your skin and see how you react so two nights a week may be too much for chemical exfoliant and may be too little for others three generally tranon is apply app to clean skin but if you are getting a lot of irritation and redness I find the best trick is applying some sort of serum first find a hyaluronic acid serum a snail mucin a peptide serum this is a great balancing and clarifying serum any of these apply some moisture to the skin first and I find decrease the irritation from troan quite a bit alternatively you can just put moisturizer on first and then the troin followed by your normal moisturizer this is called the sandwich method moisturizer troin moisturizer these are great ways to decrease irritation I find they help quite a bit if you're having issues starting if you are getting a lot of redness here a lot of peeling around the mouth irritation around the eyes it hurts when you're talking take a few nights off there is no harm remember this is a marathon you don't want you to get injured and not be able to reach the end this is about the Long Haul game even if it's for acne if it's for wrinkles if it's for pigmentation so take some nights off use a zinc based barrier cream during those nights and don't do any other skincare except for washing your face and what do I mean by a barrier cream even just Desitin diaper cream is a zinc paste Barrier cream um you can get roast P makes coplus bomm aen makes a wonderful zinc based Barrier cream to use at night that's really going to help relieve some of those symptoms that you're having and also just give your skin a little bit of breather for a few nights allow you to rebuild your Skin Barrier five be really cautious about the sun even when you're using it at night you can still get sun sensitivity you're really going to feel it by having a lot of redness and irritation when you go out in the sun make sure you're wearing a hat wearing sunscreen and sun protection trying to stay out of the sun between 10:00 a.m. and 2: p.m. six a purge of acne is actually very normal and expected when you were first St stting trano if you are acne prone this is more likely to occur and it often lasts several weeks so you might notice nothing for a few days and then several weeks of increased breakouts and then once you get over that hump you are going to be clear skin so it's worth it to push through obviously if after several weeks about 8 weeks you're not noticing any Improvement talk to your doctor but most of the time by 12 Weeks this has resolved do use moisturizer over your troan again to decre inrease some of that inflammation and also just make sure you're not starting other products at the same time so don't start your tran and then also start a Serum at the same time and a new moisturizer at the same time because if those are causing acne breakouts it's going to be really hard to differentiate which product is causing the issue if you're starting Treo and at that time and expecting to see breakouts often times patients come to me and they say I've been using this for a months and I haven't seen this effect I haven't seen any Improvement and like so many things in life life often with tretinoin it's all about patience and expectations right so what to expect for your skin when starting troan so in the first 4 weeks you may actually notice some improvement in your skin texture a little bit shinier more glowy but you might also notice some of those purging the acne that I mentioned previously as well it's normal to see a little bit of peeling a lot of peeling is too much and again back off from what you're doing to decrease the frequency of use and use some of those tips I mentioned for acne it can often take up to 12 weeks to see Improvement you kind of get to get over the hump to really get on the other side and get the Improvement that you're looking for so be patient and know it may make it worse before it gets better for hyperpigmentation you'll often start to notice Improvement in about 2 to 6 months that Improvement is actually going to be quickened if you are using other anti- hyperpigmentation products like tranexamic acid AIC acid hydroquinone for sure all of those are going to speed up hyperpigmentation resolution but in general you should see some resolution 2 to 6 months as long as you are not getting any significant sun exposure and then for wrinkles you're going to see Improvement in about 3 to 12 months depending on how severe your wrinkles are obviously the less severe you're going to notice improvements faster if you have a lot of deep set wrinkles you may not even start to notice any Improvement until up to a year and all of this is going to depend on the frequency of use the more frequently you use use it usually the faster you'll see results but the faster you may see those side effects as well in the United States Tre known as prescription only is contraindicated if you are pregnant in breastfeeding is often not covered by your insurance just FYI at least in United States unless you are under 18 and you have acne even if you are over than 18 and you have acne generally it's not going to be covered by your insurance I found the most affordable way to get tranan is actually through a compounding pharmacy and they can often compound it with other ingredients this is actually my tro and that is compounded with niacinamide and hyaluronic acid so you kind of get some other benefits with that product it's also a little bit cheaper than if I went just through the typical Pharmacy so I find that that's been a hack to get a little bit more affordable also you can sometimes use these coupon programs if you are going through a pharmacy like good RX other coupons where will kind of decrease the price from say $200 to maybe $40 to $60 there are many different compound in pharmacies this one is skin medicinals which I like but you can talk to your doctor about that if cost is the biggest issue in starting tranan let me know in the comments what your experience has been let me know if any of these tips are helpful certainly like this video if they were helpful and follow for more skincare and dermatology tips I'm Dr Abby Waldman be well