Video:Learning to Identify Common Skin Diseases

Transcript:Learning to Identify Common Skin Diseases

Hi, this is Dr. Deborah Jaliman, a board certified dermatologist, for About.com talking about common skin conditions.

Eczema is a Common Skin Disease

There are many things we see as dermatologists that are very common. For example, we see eczema every day, which looks like red, scaly patches. It can occur on the face, on the hands or on the body. And it’s usually very dry, red patchy skin that’s easily treated. And you can start to treat at home before going to see a dermatologist with proper skin care, with hydration and with lessening your showers and using cooler water in the showers, using a humidifier.

Skin Care and Acne

The other thing we see a lot is we see mild acne, and there you see blackheads, whiteheads. You see some red papules on your face, that’s usually the central face, and that’s something that’s very common and has to be differentiated from rosacea on the face. The difference between those two conditions is rosacea doesn’t have any blackheads or whiteheads. It just has red bumps on the central face, and rosacea is usually in older individuals.

The other thing that’s very common is adult acne, which is caused by hormones, and that’s usually on the lower face where you have cystic acne on the lower part of the face and neck. Another common condition that we see is folliculitis, where you see pustules. You usually see it in the beards of men, or you can see it on the lower legs of women, and it’s usually after shaving. And that’s a very common skin condition that we see as well. If you have any other questions about common skin conditions, please go to About.com.