Eczema On Face
When you get eczema on your face, it can be doubly embarrassing. Not only is it an obvious place where people can see it but it can itch and you can find yourself scratching your face in public. Fortunately, there is treatment for taking care of your face when you have eczema and medical treatments that work very well to control the symptoms.
Eczema on the face is related to eczema of the scalp. Both occur in the oiliest places on our body and are made worse because of blocked oil glands. The skin becomes inflamed because of the blocked oil glands and scales form on the surface of the oozing skin. It is unsightly and can itch profusely. If you have eczema on your face, you often have it on your scalp as well. It is also called “seborrheic dermatitis”.
The trick to curing eczema of the face is to take good care of the skin and use medications if good skin care doesn’t work on its own. Wash your face daily with a hypoallergenic soap. Alternatively, you can wash your face with anti-dandruff shampoo as a sort of face wash. It will get rid of scales and the yellowish coating on the inflamed skin.
When you take a bath, exfoliate the skin with colloidal oatmeal put into the bath. Just draw up some colloidal oatmeal onto a hand cloth and rub it on the skin gently. The exudate will come off and the skin underneath will have the oil glands opened up. After using colloidal oatmeal or washing your face with soap or anti-dandruff shampoo, you need to consider putting on a good emollient to protect the skin and hold the moisture in. Use a Lubriderm, Eucerin or Moisturel cream (or equivalent) in order to soften the skin and keep the moisture in the otherwise really dry skin.
You may be able to soothe the eczema with the above treatments, but to exact a cure you need to consider applying 1 percent hydrocortisone cream to the affected area. This is available over the counter and can decrease the body’s immune response to the skin. It settles the inflammation and makes the eczema go away in some cases. Another treatment is Scalpicin, which is an OTC hydrocortisone solution that can be used on both the scalp and the face. You should still make sure the face is well lubricated with an ointment or cream after using Scalpicin.
In other cases, you need a doctor’s prescription to manage eczema of the face. You can use prescription strength corticosteroids such as Diprolene cream, although it shouldn’t be used for a long period of time. You apply it once per day for up to two weeks and then allow the skin to take a break. Diprolene cream is too strong to be used on the facial skin for very long. The same is true of other strong fluorinated corticosteroid creams.
Doctors sometimes prescribe a prednisone taper, which is an oral taper of prednisone, beginning with higher doses of prednisone and tapering to a lower dose. This often settles the eczema nicely so that it goes away for a while.
