What Is The Difference Between Over-The-Counter Skin Care and Medical Grade Skin Care?

When it comes to skincare, trying to determine where you should invest your money can be daunting, overwhelming, and frustrating with all of the options available out there. Everyone wants to see results with the money they spend, but you also don’t want to break the bank. So what’s the difference between over the counter skin care and medical grade products? And is it worth the investment?

A great way to understand the difference between both skincare categories is to think about a cold and flu medication that you can buy from your local pharmacy versus a prescribed antibiotic by your doctor. While the cold and flu medication may relieve some of your symptoms, you will not be cured until you are properly treated with the right medication. The same can be said about products that you can buy over the counter that simply sit on a layer on top of your skin. Medical grade skin care products are specifically formulated to penetrate deeply into your skin’s layers to provide you with better and quicker results.

Over-The-Counter Skin Care

Over-the-counter skin care products include those that are readily available at the drugstore and retail stores. These products allow you to self-diagnose your skin conditions and choose what’s best as opposed to having a trained medical professional assess and examine your skin to ensure your needs are being met.

Over-the-counter products are available for purchase and can be used by anyone because they usually contain a very low concentration of active ingredients. Furthermore, the majority of the contents in their products consist of water and various fillers!. This means that many products are not concentrated enough to actually penetrate the outermost layer of your skin, leaving treatments ineffective as they are sitting on a layer of dead skin cells as opposed to doing what they are supposed to do. Individuals who would like to treat skin conditions such as acne, reduce the appearance of sun spots, or wish to combat aging signs need a high concentration of active ingredients to be contained in their skin care products if they wish to see any dramatic improvement.

While over-the-counter products come with an affordable price tag and can be purchased almost anywhere, they frequently contain low levels of active ingredients that will not allow them to deliver on their promise. On the other hand, medical grade skin care requires a lengthy process of research and development as well as clinical trials before being allowed into the market. In addition, medical grade skin care products frequently contain high levels of active ingredients that are proven to provide you with real results.

Medical Grade Skin Care

Medical grade skin care products are specifically formulated with ingredients that can penetrate the deepest levels of the skin with the high concentration of actives contained in it. This will help address your specific skin concerns and help skin cell turn over, which encourages the production of collagen and elastin. This will help combat skin discolouration such as age spots, acne scarring, and fight aging signs such as fine lines and wrinkles.

The extensive clinical research put behind the development of medical-grade skin care products means that they are formulated with optimal levels of active ingredients in order to make real changes to your skin and deliver the results you desire.

Usually, the higher concentration of active ingredients in your skin care translates into better results. However, it is crucial that a medical professional accurately assess your needs beforehand to determine the proper amount needed as well as what its usage frequency should be.

Getting Professional Advice Regarding Skin Care

When you are in the process of putting together a skin care regime, it is often times a difficult and overwhelming process as there are so many products available on the market. You may not know which ingredients do what or know what will irritate it, which can be the case for many patients who are self-diagnosing their skin and utilizing over-the-counter skin care in attempts to address their concerns.

Skincare is highly customized and can take a long time to perfect. Trial and error are often needed for someone to find the regime that works perfectly for them. With skincare, the one-size-fits-all mentality does not work and every person has unique skincare needs. This is why it is so crucial for skin care specialists and physicians to provide customizable care.

At McLean Clinic, we strive to equip our patients with the information and knowledge they need to know to find what works best for their skin. No matter what state your skin is in, our team is here to help you find a skin care routine to do all the hard work for you whether it is to determine what type of sunscreen to use, how to get rid of acne, or what skin care products are best to fight aging signs. We’re ultimately here to help you feel confident in your skin to help guide you on your journey of good skin health.