Dermatologist Monica Li explains why popping a pimple with your fingers can raise the risk of inflammation and infection of the skin.
A dermatologist is warning people against popping pimples, especially around the nose and mouth, after a woman’s at-home attempt led to an urgent care visit.
Alisha Monaco @lishmarie1 of Michigan, said she developed extreme swelling on one side of her face just hours after trying to pop a cystic pimple beneath her nostril, an area sometimes referred to as the “triangle of death.”
“I’ve been getting these cyst pimples a couple times a month, and that was one of them,” Monaco said in a zoom interview with CTVNews.ca.
The so-called “triangle of death” refers to the area from the bridge of the nose to the corners of the mouth.
Dr. Monica Li, clinical assistant professor with the Department of Dermatology and Skin Science at the University of British Columbia, says the term is “a bit sensational,” but the risks are legitimate.
“That zone is particularly vulnerable because it’s highly vascular,” she said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. “Anytime the skin barriers breach, there’s always a risk that outside microbes can enter into tissue.”
Monaco said she and her husband attempted to pop the pimple carefully, sanitizing both their tools and hands.
“I had an alcohol wipe in my hand,” she said. “My kids call me `germ freak mom,’ so I’m always washing my hands. I even sanitized the (pimple popping) tool. My husband was helping me. I wiped his fingers (too).”
But Li says that is not enough.
“Even if hands were really clean and not a source of problem, once you remove the content from a pimple, it creates an opening in the skin and then anything from the outside world potentially could enter through that entry point,” she said.
It didn’t take long for Monaco to realize something was wrong.
“I knew I messed up when I tried to poke it with the pimple poker … and my ear popped,” she said.
Within hours, Monaco’s condition worsened.
“I woke up four or five hours later and I just jumped up out of my bed because I could feel that I couldn’t even smile on that side of my face,” she said. “My eye was a little bit swollen, getting blurry. My ear was all foggy.”
She was prescribed four medications, including antibiotics and steroids, to treat her infection. The swelling, she said, was so severe she could only smile with one side of her mouth. It took three days for her to fully recover.
Li warns that poking at pimples can cause more than short-term pain.
“If an acne lesion, which has inflammation, does get traumatized, then it can actually lead to more inflammation, which then subsequently can lead to scarring and unwanted pigmentation,” she said. “Those are much more common scenarios that people end up experiencing, which still can be quite devastating.”
In 2023, another TikTok user, @imlesbianflavored, shared a similar story about developing a staph infection after picking at a pimple. She later described the pain as “worse than childbirth” and said the incident left a permanent scar.
Li urges people to leave blemishes alone and seek professional help for painful or persistent acne.
“If someone has a pimple, please leave it alone,” she said. “If there’s a lot of it, see a doctor (and) get the proper acne treatment.”
For special occasions like weddings, Li says doctors can even administer steroid injections to reduce swelling quickly.
While many find pimple-popping videos satisfying, Li stresses that at-home attempts are unsafe.
“I guess people get excited because they’ve seen the Pimple Popper … and then think, ‘If a big cyst like that could be popped, then maybe I could pop my own,’ but it’s just a bad idea,” she said. “The bottom line is … do not pop a pimple.”
Monaco says she’s learned her lesson.
“I will never touch another pimple on my face ever again,” she said. “It’s just not worth the risk.”