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Before Taking This Medicine
Allergies¡XTell your doctor if you have ever had any unusual or allergic reaction to acitretin, etretinate, isoRetin-A, Retin-A, or vitamin A preparations. Also tell your health care professional if y
u are allergic to any other substances, such as preservatives or dyes.
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What special precautions should I follow?
During the first 6 months of use, avoid overexposing the treated areas to sunlight, wind, or cold weather. The skin will be more prone to sunburn, dryness, or irritation, especially during the first 2
or 3 weeks. However, you should not stop using this medicine unless the skin irritation becomes too severe. Do not use a sunlamp .
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What side effects may occur?
In some animal studies, Retin-A has been shown to cause skin tumors to develop faster when the treated area is exposed to ultraviolet light (sunlight or artificial sunlight from a sunlamp). Other stud
ies have not shown the same result and more studies need to be done. It is not known if Retin-A causes skin tumors to develop faster in humans.
Check with your doctor as soon as possible if a
ny of the following side effects occur:
- Burning feeling or stinging skin (severe); lightening of skin of treated area, unexpected; peeling of skin (severe); redness of skin (severe) ; u
nusual dryness of skin (severe)
- Darkening of treated skin
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How should this medicine be used?
Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:
- Dermatitis, seborrheic or
- Eczema or
- Sunburn¡XUse of this medicine may cause or increase the irr
tation associated with these problems
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Drug Interactions
Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to c
hange the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. Tell your health care professional if you are using any other topical prescription or nonprescription (over-the-counter [OTC]) medicine that is t
o be applied to the same area of the skin. When you are using topical Retin-A, it is especially important that your health care professional know if you are taking any of the following:
- Ac
itretin (e.g., Soriatane)
- Etretinate (e.g., Tegison)
- Retin-A, oral ¡XMay increase chance of getting severe dryness or redness of skin
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What Is It
Your acne probably will get worse (red, scaling skin and an increase in acne sores) during the first 7-10 days that you use this medication. Nevertheless, continue to use it; the acne sores should dis
appear. Usually 2-3 weeks (and sometimes more than 6 weeks) of regular use of Retin-A is required before improvement is seen.
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