Acne vulgaris is the full name of a condition that is more than just common and widespread. Acne is a disease of the hair follicles and sebaceous glands that is manifest with or without tissue inflammation. What we refer to as zits or pimples make in fact acne lesions, and they trouble the majority of adolescents as well as very many adults in their twenties or thirties. Most of the time, hormonal imbalances, inadequate diet and an intoxication of the system represent among the main causes of the skin disease.

The body parts most affected by acne are the face, the neck, the upper back and the shoulders, but in very serious and extended cases, people get acne on other parts of the body too, like on the head for instance. The acne symptoms and the aspect of the lesions are the elements that allow the diagnosis of a certain type of acne over another. The most serious of all forms is cystic acne which poses challenges both by the pain that accompanies it as well as by the treatment difficulty, since, besides the external pimples, there are cysts present deep into the skin.