Skin Health · Central, Hong Kong
Common Skin Problems
An educational overview of common skin conditions, how they may appear, and when medical assessment may be appropriate.
Skin Topics
Common skin concerns to recognise
These categories are intended to help readers recognise common patterns and understand the kinds of symptoms that may warrant further review.
When your skin condition isn't improving,
a medical assessment may help clarify the diagnosis.
A rash that does not improve may not be the same condition throughout. Acne, eczema, fungal infection, pigmentation, and benign growths can sometimes look similar at first glance, but their causes and likely course may differ.
Clear description of the pattern, duration, triggers, and associated symptoms often helps narrow the possibilities.
Common Skin Conditions
Select a category
to learn more
Acne may include blackheads, whiteheads, inflamed bumps, or deeper cystic lesions. It can be influenced by hormones, occlusive skincare, friction, stress, and genetic tendency. Persistent, scarring, or painful acne may warrant medical review.
Eczema usually causes dry, itchy, inflamed skin that may flare and settle over time. Common triggers include heat, sweat, soaps, fragrance, wool, stress, and scratching. Crusting, oozing, widespread sleep disturbance, or poor response to basic skin care may need further review.
Rosacea often presents with flushing, persistent redness, sensitivity, and sometimes acne-like bumps on the central face. Heat, alcohol, spicy food, exercise, and some skincare products can trigger symptoms. Eye irritation can occur in some people.
Psoriasis often appears as well-defined, scaly plaques on the elbows, knees, scalp, or trunk. It may itch or crack, and some people also develop nail changes or joint symptoms. Because it can mimic other rashes, pattern and distribution are important.
Contact dermatitis may follow exposure to an irritant or allergen such as soaps, fragrance, hair dye, metals, gloves, or occupational chemicals. The rash often reflects the site of contact, but repeated exposure can make it spread or persist.
Hives are raised, itchy wheals that can move around the body and change quickly over hours. Triggers may include infection, medicines, heat, pressure, or sometimes no clear cause. Lip swelling, breathing difficulty, or dizziness need urgent assessment.
Fungal skin infections may cause ring-shaped rashes, scaling, itch, peeling between the toes, or patches that are lighter or darker than the surrounding skin. They can resemble eczema, so persistent or one-sided rashes may need closer review.
Nail fungus often causes thickening, yellowing, brittleness, or separation of the nail from the nail bed. Because trauma and psoriasis can also affect nails, the appearance alone does not always confirm the cause.
Warts are caused by human papillomavirus and may appear as rough bumps on the hands, feet, face, or around the nails. Some resolve over time, while others persist, spread, or become painful depending on their site and size.
Bacterial skin infections may cause redness, swelling, warmth, tenderness, pus, or crusting. They can develop around hair follicles, wounds, bites, or pre-existing skin disease, and some spread quickly.
Shingles usually causes a painful or burning rash with grouped blisters on one side of the body. Early pain may appear before the rash, and some people continue to experience nerve pain after the skin heals. Eye or ear involvement needs prompt review.
Molluscum contagiosum causes small, dome-shaped viral bumps, often with a central dimple. It is common in children and may spread through close skin contact. Surrounding eczema can sometimes make the area look more inflamed.
Pigmentation can arise from sun exposure, inflammation, hormones, medicines, or healing after a previous rash or injury. Pattern, colour, distribution, and timing help distinguish melasma from other common causes of dark marks.
Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation refers to darkening left behind after acne, eczema, bites, irritation, or other skin inflammation. It is more noticeable in some skin tones and may fade slowly even after the original trigger settles.
Hair loss can follow several patterns, including gradual thinning, sudden shedding, patchy loss, or breakage related to traction or scalp inflammation. The pattern, duration, and associated scalp symptoms help narrow the likely cause.
Dry or sensitive skin may reflect simple barrier irritation, climate, over-cleansing, or an underlying inflammatory condition. Burning, stinging, tightness, and intolerance of multiple products are common features.
New or changing moles, persistent crusted spots, and lesions that bleed, itch, ulcerate, or enlarge deserve closer attention. Warning signs often include asymmetry, border change, uneven colour, or a spot that looks noticeably different from others nearby.
Your Consultation
What happens at
a skin consultation
History and visual examination
Useful history often includes when the rash or lesion started, where it appears, whether it itches or hurts, what seems to trigger it, and what has already been tried. Visual pattern and distribution are often important clues.
Interpret the pattern
Some skin conditions are short-lived, while others recur or persist. Distribution, timing, scaling, pigment change, pain, crusting, and associated symptoms may all help distinguish one pattern from another.
Follow-up and review
For long-standing or changing problems, comparing how the skin behaves over time can be more useful than relying on a single snapshot. Features such as spread, recurrence, healing pattern, and scarring tendency often matter.
Questions
Skin problems —
common questions
Rapid spread, significant pain, facial swelling, fever, blistering, eye involvement, or a lesion that bleeds, crusts, or changes quickly are examples of features that may need earlier medical attention.
Redness, scaling, itch, bumps, pigment change, and crusting can appear in many different conditions. Distribution, duration, triggers, and associated symptoms often provide the clues that separate one diagnosis from another.
Some conditions are especially common in children, including eczema, molluscum, viral warts, and certain fungal rashes. Scratching, infection, and sleep disturbance may also have a bigger practical impact in younger children.
Helpful details include when the problem started, whether it is spreading, what seems to trigger it, whether it itches or hurts, any associated fever or swelling, and what treatments or skincare products have already been tried.
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