The 10 types of grains and their characteristics

The appearance of pimples on the face is something completely normal, especially in times of stress, in some phases of the adolescence, after imbalances of the female hormonal cycle or during a time when unhealthy food is eaten, for example. The condition of the skin is a good indication of the health of the rest of the body, since epidermal changes are the first to be clearly noticed in the face of some pathological processes.

Acne vulgaris, one of the most common forms of pimples (especially on the face and back), affects 40 million people worldwide, including girls as young as 11 years old and boys as young as 12. Although this epidermal condition is considered almost exclusive to adolescents, it has been shown that 10% of the people who manifest it are between 35 and 44 years of age.

In any case, beyond acne, there are many other reasons why pimples appear on the face, some pathological and others normal. If you want to know everything about the different types of grains and their characteristics, keep reading.

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What is a pimple and what are its types?

According to the Royal Spanish Academy of the language (RAE), a grain is each one of the small bumps in the structure or on the surface of some bodies, including the skin. Even though we all understand each other when we talk about pimples, in reality this term has no medical interest whatsoever, as it does not refer to the underlying cause of the lump in question.

In the following lines, we are going to extend the meaning of "grain" to all the related bulging processes in the skin. with acne, to finally explore those entities that can be mistaken for pimples but are not really They are. Do not miss it.

1. Pimple or whitehead

This is the most common type of grain of all and to which we usually refer when we use the word. Anyway, the most appropriate term is “comedo”, and this refers to a hair follicle that has been obstructed.

Either due to an excess of dead epidermal cells and keratin on the surface of the skin (hyperkeratosis) or due to an excess production of sebum By the sebaceous gland, the pore of a hair follicle can become clogged, which causes the accumulation of fat and substances under the skin. This is how pimples or whiteheads appear, "closed" by a film and isolated from the environment. This is the primary acne efflorescence.

2. Black dot

The premise is the same: a microcomedone is formed by the plugging of a hair follicle. The difference with the previous case is that, on this occasion, the sebum is in direct contact with the outside, which gives the efflorescence a black tone. Contrary to what is usually believed, the brownish tone of the blackhead is not due to dirt in the follicle, but to the presence of melanin and the oxidation of fats.

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3. Papules

So far, we have moved into non-inflammatory pictures. Pustules they are the first sign of a more severe type of acne, as in this case there is an immune response that inflames the pimple, giving it a more reddened and elevated tone. This inflammation occurs in response to bacterial invasion of Corynebacterium acnes follicle, a commensal microorganism that feeds on decaying organic matter, such as sebum.

4. Pustules

Pustules are the next step, characterized by further invasion of C. acnes and the consequent inflammatory response in the skin. These formations are characterized by the accumulation of pus at the subepidermal level., composed of lymph, white blood cells or lymphocytes, dead cells, cholesterol, glucose and remains of bacteria. They are lumps larger than papules, soft to the touch and with a pus-filled center.

5. Nodules

Nodules are deep, hard, swollen lumps without a pus center, reflect an infiltration of inflammation and infection into deeper layers of the skin. As C. acnes expands, the greater the localized tissue damage. For this reason, the nodules already usually leave scars after their disappearance.

6. Cysts

A cyst is a sac of membranous tissue that contains fluid, air, or other substances, in this case pus. It represents the most severe type of acne, which occurs on the face and back with multiple reddened lesions that are very painful to the touch. At this point, medical intervention is essential, as the damage caused to the skin's environment can be irreversible.

7. Milia

From here, we move away from the acne box. We present to you those formations that can be confused with pimples or comedones but that, in reality, have not been triggered by an accumulation of sebum at the level of the hair follicle.

For its part, milia are small bumps that appear on different parts of the body, usually under the outer layer between the skin and the eyelid, around the nose and eyes or in the area of ​​the cheeks. It corresponds to an accumulation of dead cells (corneocytes) and keratin trapped under the surface of the skin, which gives rise to small colorless and painless formations similar to a wart.

Milia is very different from acne, because in this case, the condition is not caused by the accumulation of sebum in the epidermal environment, there is no bacterial invasion and therefore no events occur inflammatory. They are not usually annoying formations, but if they cause aesthetic discomfort, they can be removed with cryotherapy or chemical facial peels.

8. Wart

Warts are a very curious case, because very few people know why they appear, but almost all of us have them. As surprising as it may seem, these formations appear after infection by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which is really a virus with more than 150 different variants that affect different species.

When we have a wound or we scratch our skin thoroughly, some of the HPV subtypes can enter the environment of the skin, and after a few weeks, the wart appears. HPVs 2, 7, 4 and 1 are some of those that cause warts in different parts of the body. Other variants (such as HPV 16 and 18) are much more dangerous, causing more than 70% of cervical cancer (CUC) cases in women.

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9. Lipoma

Actually, a lipoma has absolutely nothing to do with a common pimple, but people less those familiar with the medical field may mistake it for an overly prominent comedo, a cyst and even a neoplastic tumor. Nothing is further from reality: the vast majority of lipomas are harmless.

Lipomas are nodules of fatty subcutaneous tissue of a non-invasive nature. They are distinguished from a tumor to use in that, if you touch them, you will notice that they are soft and move under the skin. On a medical level, lipomas are not a problem.

10. Melanoma

Any journey through epidermal upwellings has to end, one way or another, in melanoma. In any case, we are not in favor of placing special emphasis on cancers, since they generate more hysteria than anything else, when in fact they are almost never the causative agent of a lump on the skin.

Melanomas form in skin cells responsible for producing melanin (melanocytes), hence they closely resemble spontaneous moles, with irregular and reddened edges.

Resume

We have presented you with many types of grains this time, but we have left many others along the way, such as pimples that appear during an allergic reaction, hives, hives, dermatitis rashes and many other things more. As the term "grain" refers to any bulge in the skin, we can encompass a huge amount of epidermal upwellings..

However, most of the pimples on the skin are found in the form of pimples, blackheads, milia and, at most, papules. Except for the last type, the others are harmless and cause nothing but aesthetic discomfort.