Blind pimples can be painful and annoying. But several treatments, including warm compresses and topical creams, can shrink a blind pimple. Never try to “pop” a blind pimple. Squeezing it can make the pimple worse or cause permanent scarring.
Warm compress
Place the wet washcloth over your blind pimple for five to 10 minutes. This helps drain the puss from the pimple. “We recommend using a warm compress for five to 10 minutes multiple times a day for the best results,” says June. “Doing that, you'll notice your pimple getting smaller and less painful.”
If it's superficial enough, warm compresses could help the pimple come to a head, allowing it to rupture and expel the pus that's causing pain, says Hadley King, MD, board-certified dermatologist in New York City.
But in the case of blind pimples, you actually can't pop them. Since they are beneath the skin and have no 'head', there isn't a clear pathway for you to remove the pus or bacteria from your skin [2]. If you try to squeeze a blind pimple, you're only going to cause more inflammation.
Can I pop a blind pimple? 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.
“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.
Luckily, though, blind pimples typically go away in one to two weeks when treated (if left untreated, they can persist under your skin for a few months), and simple home remedies can be key, says Dr. Young.
A primary feature of blind pimples is the tenderness they can cause. If you feel pain around the area, know that this is a normal sensation. The accumulation of pus and bacteria places pressure on the skin which can cause varying degrees of tenderness.
One of the worst things you can do is try and pop or continue to touch a blind pimple, this will only make the area more irritated and can lead to infection or scarring. Once you have cleansed and applied products, ensure you leave the area alone.
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.
Pustules are a type of pimple that contains yellowish pus. They are larger than whiteheads and blackheads. Pustules appear either as red bumps with white centers or as white bumps that are hard and often tender to the touch. In many cases, the skin around the pustules is red or inflamed.
Nodular acne is a type of inflammatory acne. It causes firm, painful lumps to form under your skin and red bumps to appear on your skin's surface. Nodular acne requires treatment from a healthcare provider. You can't treat this type of acne yourself.
You may have heard this suggestion, but experts on acne say don't try it. Toothpaste could make that spot on your skin even more red, irritated, and noticeable. Why? Today, there are so many different kinds of toothpastes — and lots of them contain ingredients that can hurt your skin.
Back acne (or “bacne”) is acne that develops on your back. It causes pimples that appear as red bumps, whiteheads or blackheads. These zits can be unsightly, annoying and painful. Acne happens when oil, dirt, dead skin cells and bacteria clog your skin's pores.
Cystic acne is a type of inflammatory acne that causes painful, pus-filled pimples to form deep under the skin. Acne occurs when oil and dead skin cells clog skin pores. With cystic acne, bacteria also gets into the pores, causing swelling or inflammation. Cystic acne is the most severe type of acne.
While ice can help reduce symptoms of an inflamed pimple, heat works well on noninflamed, blind pimples. A blind pimple is a type of closed comedo that develops in the deep layers of the skin. This type of acne occurs when a plug of sebum and dead skin cells trap oil, bacteria, and dirt deep within a hair follicle.
Try steam or warm compress to speed up the healing process of acne. This also helps reducing pain and inflammation and relieving the pus.
If you have a painful pimple, you have inflammation to blame. Whether they're on your face, back, ears, or some other part of your body, inflammation causes pain and tenderness because nerve endings near the inflamed skin notice that something isn't right (Tan, 2018).
When doing this at home, many people choose to pop pimples with a lancet needle or pin – which is not a good idea because it can cause infection if the needle or pin haven't been properly sterilized, and you might penetrate other parts of your skin, causing additional damage.
Thus, the intraoral use of syringe barrel is a good option to extract and to drain out the acne lesion on buccal area of the face.
You can cause a blood-filled pimple by damaging blood vessels around an existing pimple. This often happens when you pop, squeeze, pick or over-exfoliate a pimple. Blood-filled pimples usually heal on their own if you prevent further damage and keep the area clean.