Things to Avoid for Perioral Dermatitis

I struggled for years with perioral dermatitis, not knowing what it was. It first erupted about five years ago -- in my late twenties -- but in small patches. I would get what I thought were recurring tiny pimples, clustered around the same spot, for months at a time, and then they would go away as fast as they came. About six months ago, they came around my left nostril and the right corner of my mouth and not only stayed -- they started to spread up the sides of my nose, into my nose, and down towards my chin. It was awful!

My doctor diagnosed it as POD and gave me metronidizol, which made it worse, so I stopped using it. I eliminated soaps with Sodium Laurel Sulfates and parabens, started using organic baby products, and tried all of the "natural cures" in the following order: Apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, diaper rash cream, hydrogen peroxide. All of them seemed to irritate my skin further, and led to new outbreaks. Finally, I stopped using *all* face and tooth products. That's right: No soap, no lotion, no makeup, no toothpaste, no chapstick, nothing. I splashed my face with water, did goatsmilk yogurt masks at night, and brushed my teeth with hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. When my lips felt chapped, I used olive oil. My skin started to heal, although I did continue to get smaller, localized outbreaks, much closer to the ones I experienced over the last several years. I read about Violet Extract and tried applying it to these areas, and it seemed to have no effect. I revisited my dermatologist, who gave me erythromycin gel for the skin around my mouth and muciprin ointment for the areas with active outbreaks. They went away! (I am actually scared to declare this out of fear that I will jinx myself and bring them back, but it has been over a month now of clear skin!)

My regimen these days is super simple. I wash my face with water at night, use ACV to tone my skin afterwards (it now seems to be handling ACV, which helps control the oil factor) and, occasionally, I apply goatsmilk yogurt masks -- that's it! No soap, no lotion, nothing. My skin has not looked this healthy in years! I actually used new mineral makeup the other day for an event and, the very next afternoon, had a small outbreak under my nose. That made things pretty clear to me. The only drawback to not being able to put product on my face is that I have to be really careful about staying out of the sun as I can no longer use sunblock...

So, for those of you who, like I did, feel like you are doomed to eternity to live with a seriously unsightly rash, keep up hope! I know it's hard to go without makeup when you feel ugly and rashy, or not to use soap and lotion, but it's essential! Once your skin gets used to living without products, and you notice the results, you really won't miss them at all... And air travel is hassle-free (no more plastic baggies).

My POD has gotten better by not using liquid makeup. Liquid makeup contains isopropyl myristate. Stay away from it. Use mineral makeup. It gives better coverage and does not make you breakout. Stop using a foaming cleanser. Cleansers, hand soaps etc with Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (its what creates the suds) makes POD worse. Try using cleansers that claim that are milk cleansers. They don't create suds and they calm your skin. Stop using toothpaste that has high amounts of flouride. Switch to dry mouth toothpaste. Make sure when you wash your hair that NONE of the shampoo suds get on your face. Remember SUDS are bad. Only use ACV if it is organic. The regular stuff will inflame your skin especially if you have been put on an anitbiotic.

I have been an Esthetician for the last 15 years. One of the first things we learned when I was in Esthetics school was that many times perioral dermatitis is be caused by using a toothpaste that contains flouride. I have seen this numerous times during my career. It's worth a try to change to a natural/no flouride toothpaste. Of couse, if you are super sensitive to flouride and your local water is flouridated that must be changed too.