Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsWhat Is Vitiligo?Types of VitiligoIs Vitiligo Painful?How Is Vitiligo Treated?Frequently Asked Questions
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
What Is Vitiligo?
Types of Vitiligo
Is Vitiligo Painful?
How Is Vitiligo Treated?
Frequently Asked Questions
Changes in the skin’s physical appearance due tovitiligocannot be felt. Vitiligo is not painful, but the white patches may be more sensitive to sunlight and more likely to burn.
This article will discuss if vitiligo is painful, plus how sun sensitivity can develop in some people with vitiligo and treatment options.
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Vitiligois a type of skin pigmentation disorder where parts of the skin lose their color, resulting in white patches. If there is hair in those white patches, it might also turn white. Vitiligo is the most common type of skin pigmentation disorder; it affects 0.5%–2% of the population worldwide.
For some people with vitiligo, the condition is active, where white patches continue to develop as time goes on, while for others, the condition is stable and after a certain amount of time, no new patches come up. There are four types of vitiligo:
Vitiligo is not painful. Even though it is an autoimmune condition, you can’tfeelthe immune system attacking the melanocytes that give skin its pigmentation. You also won’t feel anything as the color diminishes from the skin. Studies suggest that vitiligo also does not change how sensitive the affected areas of the skin are.
However, because of the lack of pigmentation due to a loss of melanin, the white patches are more susceptible to sunburn. And sunburn can be painful. Thus, sunscreen is a must for those patches (and skin in general) when exposed to the sun. Sun-protective clothing like long sleeves, pants, or gloves is also helpful.
While not painful, some people with vitiligo have said that they get itchy skin sometimes, and that could even be before the white patches start showing up.
Skin and Sun Care with Vitiligo
While there is no cure for vitiligo, it can betreated. Since vitiligo causes differences in skin tone in certain areas of the body, the goal of treatment is to camouflage that difference. Treatments may include:
Of all these treatments, camouflage is the least invasive. In this case, the name of the game is uniformity. For example, makeup can be used to cover up the colorless areas to match the skin tone of the unaffected areas. If there is hair in the colorless patch and is therefore white, hair dyes are an option.
While treatment is cosmetic in nature—that is, to disguise the white patches so that they better match the person’s usual skin color— it is not purely superficial. Vitiligo can significantly impact someone’s self-esteem and may even affect their social interactions, due to impeccably high beauty standards that hold even skin tone in the highest regard.
Consequently, even though vitiligo isn’t physically painful, it can be mentally painful for the person living with it. Counseling may be able to help, in addition to, or in place of, physical treatments.
Tips for Building Self-Esteem When You Have Vitiligo
Summary
A Word From Verywell
Vitiligo is not physically painful. It feels no different than skin that has pigment. The only thing that might make it painful is that the white patches are more easily sunburned. Sunscreen is always a good idea if your skin is exposed to the sun, but having these depigmented, melanin-less patches makes sun protection even more necessary.
Even if vitiligo isn’t physically painful, as we can all probably attest to, having a physical feature outside “the norm” can cause mental hardship. In other words, just because vitiligo doesn’t hurt on the outside, doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause deeper pain. Counseling and physical treatments may help repair lost self-esteem, but we can all do a little more to make superficial differences something to take at face value—a mere difference, nothing more.
Frequently Asked QuestionsVitiligo is pronouncedvit-il-EYE-go.Most of the time, vitiligo starts as a few white patches, usually on the hands, forearms, feet, or face, and then gradually spreads to other areas of the body. This can happen over several months. In some cases, bigger patches continue to grow and spread across the skin, but typically they just stay in the same spot.Diagnosis of vitiligo is pretty straightforward. It can be seen with the naked eye. A healthcare professional will make the diagnosis based on the presence of white patches with noticeable boundaries in a certain pattern and part of the body. A noninvasive skin biopsy can show that melanocytes are indeed not present, resulting in the visible lack of pigmentation.
Vitiligo is pronouncedvit-il-EYE-go.
Most of the time, vitiligo starts as a few white patches, usually on the hands, forearms, feet, or face, and then gradually spreads to other areas of the body. This can happen over several months. In some cases, bigger patches continue to grow and spread across the skin, but typically they just stay in the same spot.
Diagnosis of vitiligo is pretty straightforward. It can be seen with the naked eye. A healthcare professional will make the diagnosis based on the presence of white patches with noticeable boundaries in a certain pattern and part of the body. A noninvasive skin biopsy can show that melanocytes are indeed not present, resulting in the visible lack of pigmentation.
4 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bergqvist C, Ezzedine K.Vitiligo: a review.Dermatology. 2020;236(6):571-592. doi:10.1159/000506103American Academy of Dermatology.Is vitiligo a medical condition?Baykal Selçuk L, Katkat E, Aksu Arıca D, Yaylı S, Bahadır S.Sun-protection habits and knowledge of patients with vitiligo.Acta Dermatovenerol Alp Pannonica Adriat. 2020;29(1):7-10.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Skin pigment disorders.
4 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bergqvist C, Ezzedine K.Vitiligo: a review.Dermatology. 2020;236(6):571-592. doi:10.1159/000506103American Academy of Dermatology.Is vitiligo a medical condition?Baykal Selçuk L, Katkat E, Aksu Arıca D, Yaylı S, Bahadır S.Sun-protection habits and knowledge of patients with vitiligo.Acta Dermatovenerol Alp Pannonica Adriat. 2020;29(1):7-10.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Skin pigment disorders.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Bergqvist C, Ezzedine K.Vitiligo: a review.Dermatology. 2020;236(6):571-592. doi:10.1159/000506103American Academy of Dermatology.Is vitiligo a medical condition?Baykal Selçuk L, Katkat E, Aksu Arıca D, Yaylı S, Bahadır S.Sun-protection habits and knowledge of patients with vitiligo.Acta Dermatovenerol Alp Pannonica Adriat. 2020;29(1):7-10.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Skin pigment disorders.
Bergqvist C, Ezzedine K.Vitiligo: a review.Dermatology. 2020;236(6):571-592. doi:10.1159/000506103
American Academy of Dermatology.Is vitiligo a medical condition?
Baykal Selçuk L, Katkat E, Aksu Arıca D, Yaylı S, Bahadır S.Sun-protection habits and knowledge of patients with vitiligo.Acta Dermatovenerol Alp Pannonica Adriat. 2020;29(1):7-10.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Skin pigment disorders.
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