As
a beauty editor, I pride myself on my extensive skin-care routine.
Every day, I spend at least 30 minutes on my regimen, and while I'm
dedicated to my laundry list of steps, I'm also 100 percent guilty of picking and popping. And I'm especially fond of squeezing the blackheads
speckled across my nose. But it wasn't until recently that I found out
attempting to manually draw out the gunk in a certain zone of my face —
known colloquially as the "triangle of death" — could lead to way more
serious damage than a bloody spot or an unsightly scar.
To be clear, the facial triangle of death is not to be confused with
the geopolitical one, which was an area south of Baghdad in Iraq marred
by violence in the early aughts, or even the Bermuda Triangle, which is
that mysterious zone in the Atlantic Ocean where ships and planes seemed
to disappear into thin air. What all three triangles do have in common is that they're similarly shaped and controversial.
[post_ads_2]
As
far your skin health is concerned, the triangle of death (which is
totally real, so real it's a topic taught in medical school and has its
own Wikipedia entry,
under "danger triangle of the face") is the area on the face from the
corners of the mouth to between the eyebrows — see, there's that trusty
triangle. Right smack in the center of that triangle, although under the
surface of the skin, is the cavernous sinus, which houses essential
nerves and blood vessels that carry blood back to the brain.
If
the surface skin were to be infected, the infection could spread, seep
into the blood vessels, and, worst case scenario, lead to cavernous
sinus thrombosis (the formation of blood clots), stroke, or death. That
last part is according to Sandra Lee, a Los Angeles–based dermatologist whom you may know as Dr. Pimple Popper — we tapped her to make sure this triangle of death thing wasn't just an urban legend.
"If you ever get an infected pimple here, it has
a shorter distance to get to the cavernous sinus," she says. "If the
inflammation from a zit spread, there's the potential for blindness or
stroke," explains Lee. If after reading those words, you were more than a
little taken aback, Lee says the triangle of death isn't as scary as it
sounds. "In this day and age, with antibiotics, we won't really let [an
infection] get to that level," says the dermatologist. "Obviously if a
pimple gets big enough and ends up causing problems, you should see a
dermatologist or a doctor about it right away. And it's easy to treat a
lot of these infections with [oral] antibiotics." Washington, D.C.,
dermatologist Rebecca Kazin agrees on the rareness of fatality from the
triangle. "This possibility is extremely remote, and I have never seen
anything close to this occurring over the past decade of practice,"
Kazin tells Allure.
[post_ads]Bottom line: While the triangle of
death has a terrifying moniker and some very real theoretical science
behind it, avoiding serious infections is totally doable by adhering to a
single rule: Don't pick or prod anything that's inflamed or healing.
Not even if you promise yourself you'll use a light touch, and not even
if you wash your hands first. (Trust me, I'm taking this advice to
heart, too.)
As you likely know, every time you try to tackle a
blemish on your own, you're doing more harm than good, as the pressing
and popping can spread bacteria on your face, which can cause additional
breakouts and even lead to permanent scarring. Instead, try a topical treatment — like the Allure editor-loved Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment — to zap bacteria and quell redness. Then allow the pimple to heal all by its lonesome.
But if you do end up popping and picking in no-no zone (hey, you're human, after all), make sure you treat it properly post-extraction. Our best tip? Dab the just-popped region with witch hazel (we like Thayers rose-scented version) to disinfect and follow it up with a small glop of an antibiotic salve, like Neosporin,
which will fight the bacteria while it works to shrink the spot. That
way, your triangle of death could be better known as the triangle of
really clear, glowy skin. Has a nice ring to it, right?
More From Allure
