Video:What is Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation?
with Dr. Debra JalimanPost-inflammatory Hyperpigmentation is a staining of the skin that occurs after acne. Watch this health video from About.com video to learn more about it and how to prevent post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.See Transcript
Transcript:What is Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation?
Hi, this is Dr. Debra Jaliman a board certified dermatologist in New York City and author of the book Skin Rules: Trade Secrets From a Top New York Dermatologist here for About.com to talk about post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. What is it?
Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation is Skin Stains
Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is actually staining of your skin. So let's say you get inflammation of your skin, which can occur from acne or any other process that causes redness in your skin. There are cells in your skin called melanocytes and those are the pigment cells. When they get annoyed or irritated they spill out their pigment into the skin and cause darkening. So you can get dark spots all over your skin and that's actually the post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation Occurs After Acne
It can be very annoying to people and patients often come to my office and complain of these dark spots and they think that that's actually the acne. But it's actually the residual spots from the acne and it can take months to go away on it's own. And can be very disfiguring. People with darker skin colors, like African-American skin tend to be more prone to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. The reason is that they have more melanin in their skin. So anybody with darker eyes, darker hair or darker skin tones are more prone to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Moreso than somebody with blond hair or blue eyes or green eyes.
Where Sunscreen to Prevent Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation
What can you do about it? One of the things you can do is to use sunscreen everyday, and I encourage anybody with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation to use sunscreen every single day and make certain that you're using and SPF of 30 and a broad spectrum sunscreen as well that blocks UVA as well as UVB rays.
If you have any other questions about post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation go to About.com.
