“I never recommend attempting to pop, pick, or poke a blind pimple—this inevitably leads to more harm than good because the pimple does not have a connection to the surface of the skin, attempting to pick it will just increase your risk of an infection or scarring,” advises Dr. Zeichner.
Never try to pop or squeeze a blind pimple. Doing so pushes the oil and bacteria deeper, causing more inflammation and increasing the risk of infection. Picking at or squeezing a blind pimple can also lead to acne scars.
Warm compresses and acne stickers can help to bring a pimple to a head so that the sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria can exit to the skin's surface. Using ice can relieve inflammation. If blind pimples occur frequently or are particularly inflamed and painful, a person should seek advice from a dermatologist.
Blind pimples are the most common types of pimples — and the most painful. The two types of blind pimples are: Cysts: These blind pimples contain pus and may feel more spongy to the touch. Nodules: These blind pimples do not contain pus and feel more firm to the touch.
Blind pimples usually tend to go away on their own after a few weeks. It can even take upto months for them to fade away. Under treatment, a blind pimple may take a few days and upto weeks to heal (5).
Basically, what happens if you don't pop a whitehead is that it goes away on its own, usually in 3 to 7 days. It may happen that you wake up one morning and notice the pimple is gone. Or you may notice the pimple draining.
Do not squeeze the cyst or poke it with a needle to open it. This can cause swelling, redness, and infection. Always have a doctor look at any new lumps you get to make sure that they are not serious.
The main difference is in the case of a blind pimple; the infection gets trapped deep in the skin, and because there is no “head” on the surface of your skin, pressure can build and cause tenderness.
A blind pimple, also known as cystic acne, is a pimple that lives beneath the surface of your skin and doesn't come to a head. It is often in the form of a red, painful bump beneath the skin. Blind pimples are caused by oil getting trapped beneath the skin.
Hard pimples develop when dead skin cells, sebum, and bacteria enter the skin's surface. Once under the skin, bacteria can multiply quickly. This can cause the skin to become irritated and even infected. Hard pimples appear as raised bumps on or under the skin's surface.
An infected pimple may be larger than a regular pimple because of swelling. It can also be warm and sore to the touch. There may also be more redness when a pimple becomes infected. An infected pimple is also going to be more painful and inflamed.
Sterilize a small needle with rubbing alcohol. Poke the center of the whitehead gently with the needle. In some cases, this is enough to allow the whitehead to drain. If the contents do not come out, wrap tissues or cotton pads around the tips of fingers.
Applying a warm compress can help to treat a blind pimple. The heat can open up pores, which may draw the pimple closer to the skin's surface and create a head. The formation of a head enables the sebum, cells, and bacteria to exit the skin. The heat from the compress can also help to relieve pain.
In an office visit, your dermatologist would use a sterilized needle—very similar to a single-use lancet—to pierce the pimple. After piercing the nodule, they follow up with a comedone extractor—a tool with a little loop at either end—to remove the inside of the zit.
If bacteria living on the skin also become stuck in the follicle, this can cause inflammation and infection. White blood cells flow in to fight infection, and, as a result, dead white blood cells, bacteria, and other debris form pockets of pus. Pus filled pimples do not reflect an individual's cleanliness.
If you once squeezed a whitehead until it burst, it's possible that the entire blockage wasn't removed—meaning that pimple could become inflamed again, says Dr. Zeichner. The irritation or exposed bacteria could also cause another pimple to form right next to your previous one.
A sebum plug can look like a tiny bump under the surface of the skin or it may stick out through the skin like a grain of sand. When a sebum plug forms, bacteria that normally lives harmlessly on the surface of your skin can start to grow within the follicle. Inflammation follows, causing a breakout.
Nodules are a type of hard pimple that can be large and painful. They form when an infected skin pore or follicle is located deep below the skin surface. Cysts are found deep below the skin when a pus-filled membrane forms around the infection.
When a pore becomes clogged or a pimple forms under your skin, your hair follicles can fill up with pus or sebum (oil). Eventually, the hair follicle can burst, breaking the clog away from your pore and beginning the healing process. This is your body's natural mechanism for dealing with clogged pores and acne.
Those tiny white or yellow bumps under the skin are not worrisome, but they might get frustrating. Milia develop under the skin when bits of dead skin cells, made up of proteins called keratin become trapped and create really hard, little white balls. Milia are essentially harmless and usually don't need treated.