Do you know your skin is the most delicate organ of your body? Yes it can be damaged by allergies very soon. Even after coming in contact with irritants or allergens present in skincare products, your skin can develop Contact Dermatitis. A condition that makes your skin dry, irritating and itchy.
What is Contact Dermatitis?
Contact dermatitis usually appears as a rash on your skin especially when your skin comes in contact with something you’re allergic to or something that causes an allergy in your skin. The rash takes the form of an itchy swelling that creates discomfort. Contact Dermatitis can be avoided by preventing contact of skin with allergy causing objects or products.
Learn more about causes, symptoms, and treatment of contact dermatitis by reading this article.
Types of Contact Dermatitis
Two types of contact dermatitis are common:
Allergic Contact Dermatitis: Allergens are the substances that cause an allergic reaction in your body. This allergic reaction creates irritation. Cosmetics, fragrances, preservatives, and jewelry metals often contain such allergens. Exposure to such substances causes itchy rash on your skin after a few days.
Irritant Contact Dermatitis: This type of rash appears as the reaction of an irritating allergic substance. The irritant chemical may be an acid, detergent, cleaners, dishwashers or soaps. Irritant contact dermatitis is a more common type of contact dermatitis than allergic contact dermatitis.
Who is More Affected by Contact Dermatitis?
There’s no specification for age or gender to be affected by contact dermatitis. Even a new born baby can be affected by the condition. Similarly, the condition can attack an adult without any difference. In most cases, the single exposure can cause allergic reaction but sometimes it takes repeated exposures to come out the allergic response. Certain professions are considered as more prone to develop the contact dermatitis, such as the professions in which people come in contact with allergens or chemical irritants. These people have a higher risk of developing the symptoms of the condition. Especially the people who have daily encounters with irritants or hazardous substances are more likely to develop the relative symptoms. A list of such professions is jotted below:
- Hairstylists.
- Artists.
- Construction site workers.
- Healthcare providers.
- Mechanics.
- Florists.
- Plumbers and janitors.
- Food handlers.
Is Contact Dermatitis a Common Condition?
As allergies and pollutants are present in unlimited quantities in our surroundings, allergic reactions like contact dermatitis have become common these days. People with sensitive skin or living with chronic skin conditions are more likely to be affected by the condition.
How Does Contact Dermatitis Affect Your Skin?
More often, contact dermatitis is diagnosed with a rash that has formed on your kin at any part of your body. It usually looks like a patch of red skin covered by itchy bumps which are painful and unbearable. The rash makes you uncomfortable for at least a few days to a few weeks. However, knowing about the causative agent of the rash, you can reduce the severity of pain and discomfort. Avoiding suspected irritants, allergens and pollutants can also help you avoid the allergic rash.
Symptoms of Contact Dermatitis
Contact dermatitis often looks like a rash on your skin that is:
- Itchy and red.
- Filled with fluid or pus.
- Dark in color than your natural skin.
- Appear with severe pain,stinging and burning sensations.
- Surrounded by elevated firm skin often looks like a swollen hive.
- Bumpy with a cluster of blisters and pimples.
When you scratch over the bumpy rash, it can break the skin layer leading to a painful wound. Infection can cause pus formation in the wound that makes it more red and crusty.
Where on Your Body You Mostly Find Contact Dermatitis?
The rash of contact dermatitis usually can appear at any part of your body, especially in those areas of your body where your skin comes into contact with irritants,allergens and pollutants. Common parts of body which more commonly come in contact with allergies include:
- Legs and feet.
- Scalp and neck.
- Armpits.
- Face,lips, eyelids and cheeks.
- Genitals like the vaginal or penis area.
- Arms, hands and fingers.
Causes of Contact Dermatitis
When your skin comes in contact with allergens or irritants, it shows a response in the form of an allergic reaction. The allergic reaction often appears in the form of a rash accompanied by bumpy bristles and pimples that not only causes irritation and itching sensation but also brings unbearable pain and discomfort.
Studies show that your skin is the most sensitive organ of your body. It gets allergic to something. Whenever it gets in touch with those thighs it doesn’t like it and your immune system recognizes that thing as an allergen or irritant or pollutant. In this situation the immune system gets activated and shows response in the form of swelling and inflammation around a specific area. This red swelling is the indicator of the presence of your white blood cells there. This means your white blood cells are fighting against that allergen. The fighting causes itchiness and irritation in the ash and surrounding areas.
Most common causes of contact dermatitis include:
- Botanical poisons extracted from plants or parts of plants like ivy.
- Skincare products.
- Chemicals or preservatives.
- Certain metals like nickel.
- Medications sigh as antibiotics.
- Causes of irritant contact dermatitis include:
- Hair dyes.
- Resins, epoxies, and plastics.
- Acids.
- Body fluids, like saliva or urine.
- Detergents or soaps.
- Varnishes and paints.
- Nail polish removers or other solvents.
- Cleaning products.
Contagious Contact Dermatitis
This type of contact dermatitis spreads from one to another in a short time. For example when you touch someone else’s skin who has contact dermatitis or a poison ivy, you get the allergens from them. If their contact dermatitis was in an allergic phase, you might get affected. But contact dermatitis is not a contagious disease.
However, it can easily spread from one part of the body to the other. Allergic contact dermatitis is most commonly spread like this. When you touch an allergen and then touch other parts of the body without washing hands, multiple body toys get in contact with the allergen and the reaction starts in all areas of contact. So,if you experience spreading the rash in other parts of the body, contact your healthcare provider as soon as possible.
How Do You Get Rid of Contact Dermatitis?
Severity of symptoms and the spreading of allergic reactions often help to decide what treatment option will be suitable. Studies show that the best treatment is avoiding the irritant or allergen. However, this may not be possible for everyone. Therefore, learning about the tips to improve the symptoms at home can help you handle the condition. Some of these tips include:
- Use mild soaps and lukewarm water to clean your skin.
- Apply emollients to the area to help protect and moisturize.
- Take an antihistamine drug that can reduce allergic response and itching.
- Avoid scratching the rash to prevent infection in other areas of the body.
- Use anti-itch creams and lotions to relieve the symptom.
Sometimes, doctors prefer to prescribe string steroid lotions to soothe your skin but all of these are temporary treatments and also cause side effects.
According to studies, a common contact dermatitis takes almost 1 to 2 months to go away but its irritant type can heal faster. Sometimes the rush is minor and gets well soon on its own without any complication. Then you didn’t need medical help. But if it doesn’t go away within four weeks, it’s a matter of concern obviously. You should contact your ski specialist if your rash:
- Doesn’t improve with home treatment.
- It is close to delicate parts of your body like your mouth or eyes.
- Covers a sensitive area of the body.
How to Diagnose the Condition?
Performing a physical dealing with stuffing the complete medical history of a patient can help review the symptoms. Most health providers adopt this way for accurate diagnosis. Researchers cannot find a proper test to diagnose the condition at first attempt. Identification of the cause of contact dermatitis is also a difficult task. Providers often ask questions about the environment and things around you to which you come in contact with. Location and size of rash also a great thing to help diagnose the cause. Your provider may ask:
- Do you have contact with any irritant or chemical on a regular basis?
- Did you come in contact with a new plant or plant product nowadays?
- Have you changed any of your skincare products these days?
- How long have you had a rash?
Proctors also prefer to conduct a patch test to confirm a diagnosis. The patch is contaminated with some allergens, after removing the patch if there’s an allergic reaction on your skin, you must have contact dermatitis.
Who is the Easy Target of Contact Dermatitis?
Although risk chances for getting affected by contact dermatitis are same for everyone but still some people are at greater risk than others. These are the people who work in an occupation where they get frequent exposure to irritants and allergens. Common risk factors include:
- Red hair.
- Had atopic dermatitis in the past.
- Skin with less pigmentation.
- Use of jewelry and fragrances.
Prevention
Prevention is easier than treatment. Therefore, it is good to find out the ways to present the symptoms. The main thing to prevent contact dermatitis is to avoid exposure to irritants and allergen. But how can you do this?
Let’s learn!
- Stop using a product, if you experience any minor irritation after its use.
- Always choose unscented and hypoallergenic skin products.
- Always wear long sleeve shirts and full pants whenever you go hiking.
- Avoid wearing latex gloves. Replace them with vinyl gloves.
People with sensitive skin are recommended to perform a patch test, whenever they want to use a new skin or hair care product. If they don’t find any reaction after 24 hours of applying the patch, it would be good for them. But experiencing any money irritation or discomfort is the sigh of an allergy reaction. Don’t use this product.
Treatment of Contact Dermatitis
Common treatment options for contact dermatitis include:
Avoid the Cause: When you identify the cause, make it sure to avoid it. If it’s impossible, try to minimize the exposure to the causative agent.
Medications: The second way of threatening the condition is taking proper medications recommended by a certified healthcare professional. These medications help relieve itching and swelling. The medications may include over-the-counter anti-itch creams, topical or oral histamines, oral steroids, prednisone or corticosteroid creams. However, sometimes doctors prescribe immunosuppressant medications but it’s a rare observation.
Complications related to Contact Dermatitis
Allergic reactions often appear as a rash. But contact dermatitis have more complications, including:
Swellings: Affected areas of your skin get swelling that occurs deep into your skin and cause unbearable pain.
Hives: Itchy, raised and discolored welts occur in our skin that cause discomfort.
Anaphylaxis: It happens when an allergic reaction attacks your respiratory organs especially the air ways and causes inflammation in them. That makes the air passage close.
The most dangerous side effect is anaphylaxis but is not common. It can be diagnosed if you experience any difficulty in breathing. If you come across such a situation, immediately call your doctor or visit the hospital. Addicts usually prefer epinephrine injection to counteract the allergic reaction in airways. So, it is OK to carry an injectable epinephrine with you, if you have any allergy.
Conclusion
Allergic reaction to an allergen or irritant causes contact dermatitis. It is not such a complicated allergy type but sometimes its symptoms cause serious complications. In most cases the symptoms go away after a few days on their own but sometimes you may need a medical emergency or some medications to relieve the symptoms like pain, itching, and inflammation.
In addition, you can treat it at home by some ordinary means, but sometimes, over-the-counter medications also help you. The most authentic way to prevent the condition is to avoid the contact. Try to limit the exposure to the cause of allergy like irritant chemicals, detergents, soaps, or cosmetic products. In case your rash has been developed into a bumpy swelling area which is full of blisters and no remedy has worked for it, you need a medical emergency. Now your dermatologist may help you to understand what is the best treatment for you.
