ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION TO TOPICAL AGENTS Dermatologists and others who consider themselves experts in skin care may not be recommending to patients the most essential, scientically proven, and benecial topical products. Several reasons underlie this problem. Because there are no standardized Skin Health Restoration and maintenance treatment guidelines, doctors are le to promote topical products based on their own variable beliefs and the inuence of heavy industry marketing. Practitioners are also guided by patient comfort and their ill-advised desires. Clinicians therefore do not recommend products that may cause irritation and subsequent patient complaints (e.g., retinoids, astringents).
