Skin Allergies : What is Contact Dermatitis?

When the skin becomes inflamed, red, and sore after coming into contact with an irritant or allergen. Common causes can include cosmetics, fragrances, soaps, latex, creams, nickel, and poison ivy.

It is often difficult to tell whether the cause is an irritant or an allergen, your board-certified allergist will do a physical exam, review your medical history and order allergy testing.

This type of allergy testing may be a patch test. A patch test contains the allergens that are suspected to be causing your issues and is placed on the skin and worn for 48 hours. If you are sensitive to an allergen, your skin may react.