If you've tried a billion approaches to curing your adult acne with no success, consider what your gut may be telling you. In a recent study, patients with acne and rosacea produced less sebum and had fewer pimples after 12 weeks of drinking a Lactobacillus probiotic supplement.

Using probiotics, the so-called good bacteria, to fight skin issues is nothing new, says Goldfaden. "Topical use of probiotics or yogurt has been around for thousands of years," he explains. "Yogurt and probiotics are calming for redness and irritation and antimicrobial.... Trying it out cannot hurt."

Your Rx: Try probiotic-based skin-care products like Bliss No Zit Sherlock Acne Kit. Also look for probiotic supplements containing the strains Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium and eat foods with live active cultures (like kefir, miso, kombucha and kimchi).

If you want to go all "Star Wars" on your acne with in-office laser treatments, there are a handful of lasers that your derm might recommend to obliterate acne -- most likely, pulsed-dye, diode, fractional, infrared or KTP.

So how do they work? In the simplest terms, these lasers do one of three things: shrink your blood vessels to decrease redness; destroy sebaceous glands under the skin, causing it to produce less oil and, theoretically, fewer pimples; or resurface the skin to make scarred or uneven skin smoother and more even-toned.

Your Rx: If topical products or oral medications haven't helped your acne, tell your derm about the type of acne or scarring that you have, which will help guide her to picking the right zit-zapper for you. One drawback: Laser treatments aren't usually covered by health insurance.