To understand dermatitis, it may be helpful to first establish what it is not. Dermatitis is not contagious in any way. It usually doesn’t cause serious harm to the body either. More importantly, not all manifestations of dermatitis are the same.
Though dermatitis is often used as a general term to describe inflammation of the skin, the condition is composed of eight distinct subtypes. Today, we’re going to look at the symptoms of dermatitis, break down the various subtypes, explain the known causes, and prime you for treatment.
Symptoms of Dermatitis
Dermatitis can cause pain, and even create a burning sensation in some people. In addition to that, this common skin condition can produce a range of symptoms, many of which depend on the type of dermatitis. We’ll get into those subtype-specific symptoms next.
More generally, dermatitis is associated with itching, red rashes and bumps, rashes that look and/or feel like a burn, dry skin, fluid-filled blisters, thickening, hardening, and swelling skin, painful ulcers, as well as crusting, scaling, and creasing skin.