Oh no! The sore, slightly erythematous papule on your chin appears the day before a big event. Yep, you're getting a pimple.

By and large, dermatology does not have a good answer for a single zit; most of our magic takes time and prevents pimples. Sure, we can inject a painful lesion. When done a day or so before an event, this is probably the single best way to make the swelling and redness improve. But there are side effects to intralesional injections of steroids, not to mention the pain. So there wasn't a good, easy treatment for an isolated zit... until now... MAYBE.

The Zeno is a handheld, portable electronic medical device that, in a controlled clinical trial, significantly shortened both the median time to improvement (12.8 versus 35.6 hours, p< 0.0001) as well as the median time to resolution (89.7 versus 140.1 hours, p= 0.0020).

It is basically a little heater that delivers a thermal dose of 121o F (49.4o C) for 2.5 minutes to a tiny, localized area. It is thought to work by destroying bacteria and possibly interfering with inflammatory mediators and increasing blood flow.

Time will tell if this is this a viable option; it's $200+ price tag may make it much less appealing for those with only the occasional zit.