Until you see how you react, avoid excessive sun exposure or wear sunscreen. A reaction with the sun on "some" people can make blotchy skin that will clear up with time and excessive sun avoidance.

Tetracycline is NOT given to children because their permanent teeth have not yet come in and are not fully developed. Tetracycline can cause a graying or yellowing of the permanent teeth if they are still in the development stages. For teenagers and adults however this is NOT a concern.

Other forms of medication in the same family are Minocin (minocycline) and Vibramycin (doxycycline). They too have the same precautions about stomach and excessive sun expsosure. The advantage of the tetracycline is it seems to have less stomach upset than minocycline or doxycycline. The advantages of the minocycline and doxycycline is that they need to be taken less often during the day to achieve the same level of effectiveness. Also sometime the Staph aureus bacteria builds up a resistance to tetracycline then we can change the antibiotic to maintain clear skin.

We usually use tetracycline in combination with other acne preps such as Oxy 5 (benzoyl peroxide) to dry up excess oil production and Nizoral shampoo applied to the face. Certain types of fungus also break down skin oil and cause a form of acne. Just killing the bacteria sometimes gets no great advantage in improving acne because the fungus picks up the slack. Using them in unison gets very good results.