How To Differenciate Between Whitehead, Milia And Fungal Acne"

One of the most commonly asked questions  is how can you tell the difference between Whitehead,Fungal Acne and Milia?

Unfortunately all of these three skin conditions do look very similar so that's where the confusion comes.From everything comes with white bumpiness and it does give some skin textural issue with the raised appearance so it's very hard to treat anything with confidence.

Today we will go through each and every skin condition the causes and how to identify it and how to self diagnose and how to treat it but please do know that the most accurate way to get the diagnosis is getting it looked under a microscope so that way the physician or dermatologists know what the substance actually is. 

Whiteheads:

Whiteheads are basically closed comedones and these are basically always getting trapped underneath a thin layer of skin the pore is not open and exposed to the air this can happen a lot among a lot of breakup from people or someone who has a really active sebum production so the excessive sebum when it mingles with dead skin cells and when they mix up with each other and they never know when to leave that's when white head forms and it's often less painful or painless compared to other acne types it is known as non inflammatory acne which means that there's no white cells attacking a acne bacteria.

Causes:

These are clogged pores basically and it's fairly easy to treat.The causes of whiteheads can definitely be more diverse than you might think but obviously the most common answer or the common causes are:

➡ Your excess sebum production meeting the dead skin cells built up on top of the pores so it really does block the sebum from flowing and really excreting and getting out of the pore tunnel so the dead skin cells are interfering the pathway of the sebum excretion.

➡The second reason might be your skin being really dehydrated and that is  experience of many people.

➡ Last but not least whiteheads can definitely occur when you are using a product that is a little bit greasy or that a little bit heavier. 

Treatment:

They are mainly veryn palpable which means they are extractable and oftentimes the white heads can be significantly improved by incorporating a chemical exfoliant such as  glycolic acid, lactic acid,mandelic acid and BHA like salicylic acid.

If your whiteheads are caused by dehydration it means that you really need to deeply hydrate and nourish the skin,if you're still afraid of deeply hydrating your skin sometimes using an aloe mask all over the skin can help calm down your skin and also really deeply hydrate your skin.

Milia:

Milia are pretty much known as the skin protein getting trapped under your skin so this is not sebum or this is not your pore issue is actually a keratin overgrowth issue, it happens a lot among newborn babies,it happens a lot particularly on the most delicate area on your skin like your eye area and this is probably the easiest to diagnose because it has a pretty obvious pearly white look, this is not an inflamed condition and it doesn't associate with pain or it's not actually harmful to your skin at all. 

Causes:

The causes of Milia are pretty interesting and easy to understand.

➡ It happens when your skin turnover slows down a lot or you are using a lot of heavy product around the eyes and the keratin keeps building up or keeps growing without your skin really turning over it. 

➡It can be often associated with your genetics or is Sun induced damage as well.

Treatment: 

It often clears up by itself, so you can definitely see and let your skin heal or let your skin turnover by its own or you can encourage the skin cellular turnover rate by using glycolic acid or retinol product and you can simply dump a cotton swab into the potion or the product and then simply dab it, press it around the eye area.Don't try to extract this by yourself because it'll be almost impossible.

An aesthetician or dermatologist can help you to get this manually extracted, however a lot of dermatologists prefer to do a laser treatment on this and you don't often need to go back because one laser treatment can be enough.

Fungal Acne:

 

Also known as Pityrosporum Folliculitis or Malassezia folliculitis.It's basically yeast overgrowth or yeast infection.Malassezia folliculitis occurs within the hair follicles due to the overgrowth of yeast.Sebum is produced by the sebaceous glands within your skin,when these sebaceous glands produce more oil,it triggers  the yeast and bacteria that naturally exists within your skin and that results in clogged pores.Bacteria can tend to produce common acne but yeast can lead inflammation in the hair follicles that results in fungal acne.It's not your skin keratin being built up.It's basically your yeast being grown.

This yeast is something  every human being or majority of the human on this planet do have.But it is the matter of how you actually manage it and what kind of food sources it gets fed.This yeast significantly grow in a very warm humid hot climate and also it does like a very occlusive environment which means that it can be exacerbated by your sweat and sebum,if you constantly over moisturize your skin sometimes that yeast can over grow.

Fungal acne can be a cluster of bumps,they can be very uniform in size.Malassezia folliculitis do not respond well to antibiotics it can only grow them stronger,so if you got prescribed by your dermatologist and you're applying antibiotics topically and it's worsening the problem,it might be fungal acne.

Causes:

➡Yeast exists naturally in our skin and it starts to grow in the moist and warm environment.This type of acne burst out when levels of heat,humidity and perspiration increases during the summer.

➡They can also be formed after treatment with antibiotics and steroids,prednisone,in combination with other systematic diseases like diabetes.

Treatment:

To treat fungal acne you've got to get rid of all the problematic ingredients in your skincare,there are so many problematic ingredients in skincare products that you are using that can cause the yeast to flare into these fungal acne. 

You can treat them with using ketoconazole which is the active ingredient for a lot of anti dandruff shampoos and oleic acid or a product with sulphar can help.

The skin is inclined to various types of conditions and all of them require different  medicines to be treated, albeit some skin issues might appear to be identical but all of them have different underlying conditions due to which they emerge.It is important figuring out what exactly is your issue and treating it with the correct medication is must because it can help exactly what to avoid and what to use for treating it.