I've had demodex. I'm actually just now recovering from the damage it did. This is my experience. I'm 41, and a little over a year ago I started breaking out. I was using Retin-A. I'm 41, and keeping the crypt keeper away is a priority. I've been using Retin-A since the 1982. Almost 30 years. I had teen acne, and Retin-A worked. I never stopped using it, and I've always been fortunate enough to have good health insurance, so obtaining it wasn't difficult or expensive. I was concerned when my skin started breaking out worse than a teenagers. Pizza face would have been a compliment. That bad. If you go to pop a zit, and it doesn't pop, and immediately 'blisters' up, and fills with a water-like substance, that's called edema, and chances are you have demodex. There's not much information out there on this, either, unless you're a dog, and then it's called mange. I went to my primary care physician, who sent me to a derm, and then I would go through three more derms in a matter of 8 months. I ended up going to a Chinese medical practitioner/herbalist. I will tell you what they prescribed me in a moment. I had demodex in, and around my ears. In fact, my ears were so 'bloated', after treatment my earlobes were a third of their previous size. I cannot believe a derm couldn't see the edema in my face. I can't believe that I didn't notice they had bloated up, to begin with! I had 'blackheads' that just wouldn't come out. They didn't look like typical blackheads. They were just black specks with skin over them. Slightly different than a blackhead. Whiteheads were non-existant. I had cysts, but they weren't really cysts, because they didn't drain, and they never seemed to heal. They were mite burrows. Demodex is a mite. Just like scabies. And just like scabies, it burrows into your skin. Supposedly we co-exist just fine with these mites, except when you have a compromised immune system. I was convinced I had a terminal illness, because demodex is common in very sick people. Think AIDS, and cancer. Children with leukemia often get demodex. My face always itched. I have an arsenal of products. All prescription. All useless. I have antibiotics (this is a big no-no!), antifungal, you name it, I have it. Pill and topical. Like I said, my face itched like nothing I can explain. The itch comes from the inside out, and not the outside. You almost cant get any relief from scratching it. I started using a product called Timeless. It's a sulfur, tea tree, zinc ointment. I had burrows all over my face, and I started using this ointment, with little change. Then I started getting burrows on my neck. What I thought was insane cystic acne. My doctor said it was menopause. My derm said it was peri-menopause. Another derm said it was rosecea. Another said it was seborrheic dermatitis, and everyone said it was something it wasn't. Through all of those tests, and the mis-diagnoses, the cysts (BURROWS) moved to my upper arms, shoulders, the back of my neck, and to my upper back. It always felt like something was moving around in my eyebrows, but it felt like something was making the peach fuzz on my back stand up straight. It felt like something was crawling around on my skin. My doctor said I was being bit by a spider, insect, or possibly bed bugs (LOL!), but my husband wasn't getting bit. I would get sharp pains on my skin, OFTEN. It felt like someone was driving a needle into my face, arm, back, or wherever. I had my face eaten raw by these mites. I was told that I was over-exfoliating. It was always me. It was always my fault. I either picked, or scratched, or whatever. Never the doctor's fault. My breaking point was when I couldn't stop scratching my upper arms. Every shirt I owned had blood stains on them. Either the back or on the sleeves. I was getting zero sleep, and I was ready to snap. You can't sleep when you are freaking itchy! I went to the Chinese doctor in Los Angeles, and he immediately diagnosed me with demodex. He gave me a 60 mg tube of permethrin 5% cream, and told me to use it every night for 8-12 hours for 7 days. He also told me to use a sulfur soap (I used Grisi sulfur soap) for the next month, all over my body. Guess what? It worked. Basically, it's the same treatment as scabies. Demodex seems to be harder to kill, though. They're not as fragile as scabies mites. It takes more treatment to kill them. I don't believe demodex is contagious. My husband, and kids, didn't get it. I did change my sheets, and pillow cases daily, because they were always bloody! Permethrin 5% cream is the bomb! Literally. It's a pesticide. I noticed a 100% improvement after one night. I was still itching for about 10 days, though. I noticed a major difference after three nights on treatment. After 10 days, my skin was clear. After a month the burrows on my arms had finally healed. Some of my observation about demodex. They are more active at night. They become active in extreme heat (hot showers). Sulfur doesn't cure demodex, and neither does tea tree oil. They will just move down your skin to an area where you didn't apply those products. Supposedly full strength tea tree oil will kill them but it didn't work for me, because I tried it, and tea tree oil is toxic, too. I'm not sure how, or why, I got demodex. I suspect it started out when I got strep, and had to do several rounds of antibiotics. And then I ended up taking antibiotics on and off over the course of a year, for other ailments. I believe the antibiotics compromised my immune system. Antibiotics are not always a good thing. Once you have demodex, they say you are susceptible to getting it, again and again, so now I keep a back up tube of permethrin. Even though these mites only travel millimetres, they come out of your pore to mate, so they can, and will, find new place to live on your body. I didn't go the natural route. I read about demodex solutions, and I didn't bother with their products because I wanted this nightmare over. Permethrin worked fast. This is just my experience, and I hope I can help someone avoid my nightmare.
Desertdwllr you are described my symptoms to a tee. I felt like my face was trying to destroy itself.
My symptoms began about six months ago when I stopped taking my birth control pills and I began getting hormonal ance. After a while my face began to have an intense itch and my cysts started to look and feel different. They never came to a head, and i would sometimes i felt like they were pulsating. If one of them popped it had a fluid inside of it that was clear fluid or sometimes if it was infected it would be bloody and pus. The itching was accompanied by a tickly or crawling feeling. The only way i can describe it is i felt like I had a single hair from my head dangling in front of my face that was brushing up against my cheek or like the tiny hairs on my face were wiggling around. i also got this feeling on other places on my body as well as the tiny stings randomly all over my body even though there was never anything there, and the breakout was only visible on my face. Sometimes my eyelashes felt like they were moving. I got these black spots that look similar to black heads left nasty little icepick scars. In fact thats really the most terrible part of this whole thing. The little dents that are being left all over my face are likely to never go away even if i had the money to get some very extensive procedures done. I tried everything i could imagine from the drugstore... Acne creams and washes galore, sulphur soap, borax and peroxide baths, hibiclense and other first aid washes, creams for bug bites and posion oak, antibiotics and natural remedies. Although hot showers feel great on the itching it made it worse at the same time. Fed up, I went to the emergency room because one of the cysts on my face became infected and my face was beginning to swell up. They gave me another antibiotic and an itch cream. After my cyst went away and none of my other symptoms improved I returned and i told them everything including my suspected mite problem. they treated me like i didnt know what i was talking about. even after I went into great detail about my symptoms i still had to basically beg for a premethrin percription because they seriously thought i was being paranoid. As far as they were concerned I had cystic acne and I needed to go to a dermatologist. When I told her my eyelashes felt like they were wiggling she stared at my blankly an told me she didn't see anything in my eyelashes. I asked for permethrin and Ivermectin and was sent home with permethrin and atarax. I stopped taking the Atarax bc it was giving me tremors and beginning to effect my thoughts. My face is getting better now but its really hard to see an improvement through all the scarring. As if the physical damage this has done me wasn't enough the deep depression that all of this caused me has seriously ruined my life. I don't like looking in the mirror anymore and I don't enjoy going out in public. All I can think about is how even after I rid myself of this curse I will still be deformed from it forever. I don't understand how something so serious can go undetected by so many doctors, and I too want to do anything I can to help anyone else who may be suffering from this so I have made a complete and detailed list of my symptoms.
Symptoms of the Breakout Area
-Itching and crawling sensation under the skin
-Throbbing cysts that dont come to a head and are often, but not always, very close together or connected almost as if the cyst is traveling under your skin
-When cysts erupt they emmit a watery fluid which sometimes contains debris
-Cysts that get infected are filled with pussy blood
-Cysts erupt from the side not usually the top, and sometimes they erupt in more than one spot
-Burrow lines
-Gradual increase in the size of breakout area
-Red spots
-Flat pustuples
-Black Spots that look similar to blackheads but only bleed if you try to remove them
-Icepick scarring
Sympoms of the breakout area and everywhere on my body
-Itching and crawling especially in the evening
-Feeling like your hairs are moving or wiggling
-Tiny random pinch/stinging sensations almost like being poked by a needle or being bit by something that you can't see.
-Feeling like something is swimming in the fluid of your eyes (if you have this symptom it can cause an eye infection or swelling of the eye lids as it did for me)
Emotional Symptoms
-Frustration
-Self conciousness
-Lonliness
-Depression
-Helplessness
-Obession
Things that discovered in during my trial and errors that helped me the most before finally being able to get my permethrin presciption.
-Condider showering twice a day to be a must.
-Night showers with sulphur soap finished off with a cold body rinse help with itching. Applying sulphur ointment before showering worked better then using the soap.
-Calagel itch and pain is great for relieving the pain as well as the itch.
-A thin layer of Calamine lotion reduced the crawling sensation on the surface of my skin.
-Treating your hair with Nix or Rid shampoo will help with scalp mites.
-Finally... A few drops of a half and half mixture of 100% tea tree oil and 100% neem oil added to my moisturizer at night was honestly the most effective non perscription treatment that I found for this condition. I was worried that the oil could possibly cause more pimples, but I was so desperate I was willing to give it a try considering i was already as embarrassed as I could possibly be about the appearance of my face. I noticed significant improvment. My skin felt so soft and the cysts went down in size but unfortunately i continued to breakout and while the itching would improve it kept coming back.
Before I resorted to the oils I was using all these things on my face that were drying it out and really almost seemed to be making it worse. These mites feed on the dead skin cells and the oils that your body produces. Using the products that dry out your skin not only weakens your defense barrier and irritates your sores, but it gives the mites tons flaky skin to feast on. Neem and tea tree oil are fabulous for your skin and are effective in killing these mites. So by applying them to your skin not only are you reducing the amount of dry skin they feed on but you are toxifing the oils these flakes of skin are covered in. The oils ability to adhere and to the mites is actually what kills them though. I'm not a dr. or a scientist but one thing i know that for sure is that even the premetherin cream would be hardly as effective if it was oil free.
Once you combine the oils you can add this mixture to any of your lotions, soaps and shampoos however I suggest having a seperate set of these products for your morning and nighttime showers. The reason for this is because the smell of Neem oil is really horrendous even when mixed with the tea tree oil and I couldn't stand smelling it all day. I suggest using the products with the added oils at night and washing with your regular products in the morning. Honestly... The smell is seriously offensive, but it is absolutely worth it. Trust me. I think this approach could possibly have cured me if I had discovered it before my condition become so severe. Nevertheless, It makes my skin feel so amazing that I will keep using it even after my condition has completely cleared up.
With that all being said, this has been such a long and exhausting battle for me which has been equally as difficult as it was being embarassed about it and feeling like I had no one to talk to about my condition. To anyone suffering from any kind of skin mite I want you to know I am so sorry this happened to you. No one should ever go through what we have gone through but I hope this information is useful to you on your journey to recovery and that you will try to help anyone that you can as well once this burden has been lifted from your life.
Desertdwllr you are described my symptoms to a tee. I felt like my face was trying to destroy itself.
My symptoms began about six months ago when I stopped taking my birth control pills and I began getting hormonal ance. After a while my face began to have an intense itch and my cysts started to look and feel different. They never came to a head, and i would sometimes i felt like they were pulsating. If one of them popped it had a fluid inside of it that was clear fluid or sometimes if it was infected it would be bloody and pus. The itching was accompanied by a tickly or crawling feeling. The only way i can describe it is i felt like I had a single hair from my head dangling in front of my face that was brushing up against my cheek or like the tiny hairs on my face were wiggling around. i also got this feeling on other places on my body as well as the tiny stings randomly all over my body even though there was never anything there, and the breakout was only visible on my face. Sometimes my eyelashes felt like they were moving. I got these black spots that look similar to black heads left nasty little icepick scars. In fact thats really the most terrible part of this whole thing. The little dents that are being left all over my face are likely to never go away even if i had the money to get some very extensive procedures done. I tried everything i could imagine from the drugstore... Acne creams and washes galore, sulphur soap, borax and peroxide baths, hibiclense and other first aid washes, creams for bug bites and posion oak, antibiotics and natural remedies. Although hot showers feel great on the itching it made it worse at the same time. Fed up, I went to the emergency room because one of the cysts on my face became infected and my face was beginning to swell up. They gave me another antibiotic and an itch cream. After my cyst went away and none of my other symptoms improved I returned and i told them everything including my suspected mite problem. they treated me like i didnt know what i was talking about. even after I went into great detail about my symptoms i still had to basically beg for a premethrin percription because they seriously thought i was being paranoid. As far as they were concerned I had cystic acne and I needed to go to a dermatologist. When I told her my eyelashes felt like they were wiggling she stared at my blankly an told me she didn't see anything in my eyelashes. I asked for permethrin and Ivermectin and was sent home with permethrin and atarax. I stopped taking the Atarax bc it was giving me tremors and beginning to effect my thoughts. My face is getting better now but its really hard to see an improvement through all the scarring. As if the physical damage this has done me wasn't enough the deep depression that all of this caused me has seriously ruined my life. I don't like looking in the mirror anymore and I don't enjoy going out in public. All I can think about is how even after I rid myself of this curse I will still be deformed from it forever. I don't understand how something so serious can go undetected by so many doctors, and I too want to do anything I can to help anyone else who may be suffering from this so I have made a complete and detailed list of my symptoms.
Symptoms of the Breakout Area
-Itching and crawling sensation under the skin
-Throbbing cysts that dont come to a head and are often, but not always, very close together or connected almost as if the cyst is traveling under your skin
-When cysts erupt they emmit a watery fluid which sometimes contains debris
-Cysts that get infected are filled with pussy blood
-Cysts erupt from the side not usually the top, and sometimes they erupt in more than one spot
-Burrow lines
-Gradual increase in the size of breakout area
-Red spots
-Flat pustuples
-Black Spots that look similar to blackheads but only bleed if you try to remove them
-Icepick scarring
Sympoms of the breakout area and everywhere on my body
-Itching and crawling especially in the evening
-Feeling like your hairs are moving or wiggling
-Tiny random pinch/stinging sensations almost like being poked by a needle or being bit by something that you can't see.
-Feeling like something is swimming in the fluid of your eyes (if you have this symptom it can cause an eye infection or swelling of the eye lids as it did for me)
Emotional Symptoms
-Frustration
-Self conciousness
-Lonliness
-Depression
-Helplessness
-Obession
Things that discovered in during my trial and errors that helped me the most before finally being able to get my permethrin presciption.
Condider showering twice a day to be a must.
Night showers with sulphur soap finished off with a cold body rinse help with itching. Applying sulphur ointment before showering worked better then using the soap.
Calagel itch and pain is great for relieving the pain as well as the itch.
A thin layer of Calamine lotion reduced the crawling sensation on the surface of my skin.
Treating your hair with Nix or Rid shampoo will help with scalp mites.
Finally... A few drops of a half and half mixture of 100% tea tree oil and 100% neem oil added to my moisturizer at night was honestly the most effective non perscription treatment that I found for this condition. I was worried that the oil could possibly cause more pimples, but I was so desperate I was willing to give it a try considering i was already as embarrassed as I could possibly be about the appearance of my face. I noticed significant improvment. My skin felt so soft and the cysts went down in size but unfortunately i continued to breakout and while the itching would improve it kept coming back.
Before I resorted to the oils I was using all these things on my face that were drying it out and really almost seemed to be making it worse. These mites feed on the dead skin cells and the oils that your body produces. Using the products that dry out your skin not only weakens your defense barrier and irritates your sores, but it gives the mites tons flaky skin to feast on. Neem and tea tree oil are fabulous for your skin and are effective in killing these mites. So by applying them to your skin not only are you reducing the amount of dry skin they feed on but you are toxifing the oils these flakes of skin are covered in. The oils ability to adhere and to the mites is actually what kills them though. I'm not a dr. or a scientist but one thing i know that for sure is that even the premetherin cream would be hardly as effective if it was oil free.
Once you combine the oils you can add this mixture to any of your lotions, soaps and shampoos however I suggest having a seperate set of these products for your morning and nighttime showers. The reason for this is because the smell of Neem oil is really horrendous even when mixed with the tea tree oil and I couldn't stand smelling it all day. I suggest using the products with the added oils at night and washing with your regular products in the morning. Honestly... The smell is seriously offensive, but it is absolutely worth it. Trust me. I think this approach could possibly have cured me if I had discovered it before my condition become so severe. Nevertheless, It makes my skin feel so amazing that I will keep using it even after my condition has completely cleared up.
With that all being said, this has been such a long and exhausting battle for me which has been equally as difficult as it was being embarassed about it and feeling like I had no one to talk to about my condition. To anyone suffering from any kind of skin mite I want you to know I am so sorry this happened to you. No one should ever go through what we have gone through but I hope this information is useful to you on your journey to recovery and that you will try to help anyone that you can as well once this burden has been lifted from your life.