It would be best if the skin disease is completely cured when using steroid, but unfortunately, people who visit my clinic complain that the cream that they had is no longer effective as they continue to use it. They get stronger prescription for it and it is again no longer effective after short period of time. Many people complain about side effect of steroid, however, there is not much choice when you are talking about eczema or any dermatitis anyway.
When treatment of skin disease in TCM, if is often inevitable to see some degree of steroid rebounding, as first treatment focus is to reduce steroid application. It is sad to see the higher the steroid grade, the more severe the rebounding, which break out once use is reduced or stopped.
It is important to check strength of steroid used before start treatment, as it is important to set up treatment plan in terms of speed of tapering off steroid.
So I would like to recommend you to check your steroid in this link below and understand what is you are on at the moment.
Topical Steroid Potency Chart
Steroids should not be used for a long period of time.
Many people visit me asking if they can use steroid for a long period time. My answer is "no".
When steroids were first developed, it was a drug that exerted a strong effect on most diseases to the extent that it is now evaluated that all diseases of mankind have been solved. However, as a number of problems occur when used for a long time, it is now recognized as a drug that should be used with caution. Long-term use of steroids is often not as effective as it used to be. It is more trouble than it's worth.
So, you have to use a stronger grade of steroid to be effective, or you need to use more often and in higher doses to be effective, and eventually you'll end up in a state where even very strong grades of steroids don't work.
Recently, steroid side effects are known broadly, and there are many cases of visiting me before reaching the steroid first, however those who do not use steroids are still rare.
Without thinking about underlying cause of disease, it is not treatment but only masking. Cure comes from inside.
There is way to treat skin disorder without using steroid in TCM clinic. treatment goal; is find the cause of it and trying to eliminate it. It is called heat poison, phlegm, blood stagnation in TCM stagnated in particular area of your body. That is why when TCM doctor examining skin disease, we do not only look at the lesion, but also seeing your menstrual cycle, any chronic digestive issue, sleep pattern and even your thirst and urinary symptoms. We will closely looking at what makes it worse and better and will try to find pattern to target.
The Well has a philosophy in treatment that target both inside and outside. If you are suffering from chronic skin problem, now stop and check your internal exacerbation factors.
And if you find it and treat it, you will be able to free from the painful skin problem.