RENO, Nev. (KOLO) -A patient typically doesn’t know he’ll develop contact dermatitis until they come in contact with that certain something that doesn’t agree with them.
Scott Sax says he was about five years old, and it came from a belt buckle.
“And they would come in direct contact with my stomach and then you know after a short period of time,” says Sax. “A few minutes within contact I would start to develop a rash. And if I didn’t remove the metal, it would get worse and worse over time.”
As it turns out, Sax has an allergy to nickel.
It can be found in belt buckles and jewelry. Sometime even jewelry with lower levels of gold can have nickel in the piece.
18% of adults in the US have a nickel allergy and may develop a rash that is itchy and is located where the skin encountered the metal.
The same rule applies to any other substance; the patient might react to dryer sheets, or other items that have fragrance to them. It can be in lotions, shampoos, even a candle. The skin can react--even if the patient has no other allergies.
“Those areas wherever your contact, you can develop a dermatitis region,” says Dr Lisa Zaleski-Larsen, a board-certified dermatologist with Nevada Center for Dermatology. “And then other regions include aerosolized versions. So, there can be candles air fresheners, even cleaning supplies can also have fragrance in them. And when you have aerosolized contact dermatitis it can happen in any place where clothing is not covering you.”
Treatment can involve steroids by pill or lotion. They will help calm down the body’s reaction to the substance it is reacting to.
Then the patient and physician need to figure out what the triggers are.
“So patch testing is typically what we will do to determine if there is a contact allergen,” says Dr. Zaleski-Larsen. “However, you have to place a large bandage your back and leave it there for a few days. It makes you itchy and you can’t shower in that time frame. So, if we can figure it out without a patch test, that is ideal.”
Patients may have to carefully look at labels to see if they contain substances that make the skin break out.
There are plenty of soaps and other items that are fragrance free. There are other items which indicate what they don’t contain and say so on the label.
Dr. Zaleski-Larsen says don’t be fooled by labels that say, “all natural.”
It’s a marketing tool and the FDA has no formal definition for it.
Go directly to the ingredients to see what is inside the packaging.