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"Nothing like some #blackheads with some patient backstory," Dr. Lee wrote in the caption.
That's putting it mildly. What would normally make for a pretty straightforward-perhaps even underwhelming, by the doc's usual standards-extraction video is underscored by some truly remarkable, rapid-fire patient backstory.
View this post on Instagram Nothing like some #blackheads with some patient backstory! #drpimplepopper A post shared by Sandra Lee, MD, FAAD, FAACS (@drpimplepopper) on Apr 16, 2019 at 3:58pm PDT
(Rather than recap all of it here, I'll just say that it's worth just listening for yourself. In mere seconds, they manage to cover such a wide swath of family drama that this man's next appointment should with the producers of This Is Us.)
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Now, back to the procedure: After slicing into a particularly juicy blackhead-on the patient's back, it appears-Dr. Lee pokes and prods and squeezes it into submission, before moving on to a couple of less problematic targets. Blackheads, as the video makes painfully clear, are "small dark lesions...that are a feature of mild acne," according to Medical News Today . They're also a type of comedo -short for comedone, which is what you get when pores are clogged dead skin cells and sebum. (Hence the name of Dr. Lee's favorite tool .)
If you've ever been a teenager, you probably know a thing or two about treating what's known as comedonal acne by now. It's also surprisingly common in adults: In fact, over 40 percent of guys in their twenties experience acne, according to a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. If you're one of them, and you're curious why it's still happening, we've got a few potential answers .