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Getting acne....Q&A............(part 3 of 5)

I’ve started getting acne spots. How long do they last? This depends on what type of spots they are and, even then, it can be very difficult to predict what will happen. Some spots will appear and then disappear during the course of a day but others will evolve more gradually through the various stages. Comedones can be very persistent if they don’t get inflamed. Mildly inflamed spots will last 5–10 days before settling down, but can leave a flat red mark (macule) for several weeks. Nodules and cysts may last for weeks or months unless you get some treatment. What is the difference between a whitehead and a yellow- head spot? These two common terms describe quite different types of spot. A whitehead is a closed comedone where the pore is blocked and not open to the air. There is no inflammation (redness). A yellow- head suggests a spot with pus in it. The medical term is a ‘pustule’. Whiteheads may become yellowheads if the blocked pore becomes infected. My daughter is only 9 but she seems
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Forming blackheads and whiteheads

The trapped sebum, cells, and keratin form a very sticky
mixture — a real traffic jam that blocks the exit route. This plug
acts just like a cork in a bottle, locking in all that stuff inside with
nowhere to go, so that it can’t exit onto the surface of the skin
(see Figure 3-4). The plug is called a microcomedo (pronounced
my-kro-cahm-e-doe). You can’t see a microcomedo with the naked
eye; it’s too small. Over time, the increasing amount of trapped
sebum builds up a lot of pressure and the hair follicle blows up like
a balloon and becomes a visible comedo (pronounced cahm-e-doe;
the plural of comedo is comedones).
There are the two types of comedones (which you can see in
Figure 3-4 and also in the color section of this book): Blackheads: If the comedo enlarges and pops out through the
surface of the skin, the tip looks dark and it’s called a black-
head. The dark color is not due to dirt; it’s the result of a
buildup of melanin, a dark pigment in the skin that turns
black when exposed to oxygen in the air. Blackheads are also
known as open comedones.
 Whiteheads: If the comedo stays below the surface of the skin,
it’s light in color and looks like a small whitish bump; it’s called
a whitehead. Whiteheads are also called closed comedones.
Comedogenesis is the medical term for the process that forms
whitehead and blackheads.
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