Health encyclopaedia

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

Symptoms of Acne

Acne spots appear in areas of skin that have a large number of sebaceous glands. They appear most often on the face, but can also form in other places such as the neck, shoulders, behind the ears, on the chest, on the buttocks and on the upper back.

Acne consists of several different types of ‘spot’, which can be roughly divided as follows:

• Blackheads – tiny dark coloured blocked pores. The black of the blackheads is due to skin pigment, not dirt. 
• Whiteheads - small, firm bumps with a white centre. 
• Pustules - pus-filled spots with an obvious balloon of white pus, which may turn yellow as the spot begins to heal. 
• Nodules - hard lumps under the skin that can be very painful, go deep into the skin and often cause scars. These are the most common type of spot found in very severe acne, and they often run together in groups. When they heal, they may leave scars.

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