Shingles On The Face
Facts About Shingles on the Face
Shingles on the face is serious, and can affect the eyes and the nose. Shingles is a condition that affects many people who have never had the chickenpox, or may have had a very mild case of chickenpox. Shingles is also known as a form of herpes called Zoster, and can be serious when it affects your eyes.
Shingles on the face can easily spread to your eyes. If we have anything on our skin that itches or burns, we tend to want to scratch it or rub it to make it go away. When we do this, we get the germs on our hands and spread it to other parts of the body. We do it unknowingly by brushing a hair from our face, or just washing our face even can cause us to spread the disease to our eyes and our nose.
When the disease is spread to your cornea, the disease is known as zoster keratitis. If this goes untreated, then the cornea can be scarred eventually leading to vision problems and even something as serious as blindness. In addition, if you feel tingling in your nose this may mean that the shingles is spreading quickly, and is one of the early symptoms indicating that it is headed to your eye. This is reason enough for anyone who suffers from shingles on the face to see a doctor immediately, no matter what stage they believe it to be in.
The rash will eventually disappear once the shingles begin to heal, but it can be a long process. Even when the rash is no longer evident, pain can still be present. The main nerve that is affected in the face is called the trigeminal nerve, which supplies the feeling. When this main nerve is affected, pain may be evident for quite some time even though they are over the rash.
Shingles on the face can affect the elderly a little more strongly, and may give an odd sensation where the rash was located for several months or even a year later. The elderly may also experience vision impairment even when the rash is gone. Many experts say that this can be the case even when the patient didn’t have vision impairment when they had the rash. This is simply related to the nerves being affected when zoster appears.
Shingles on the face usually begins like a virus, inducing a fever in the patient. The discomfort is usually generalized, and many feel it over the whole body. The patient may get chills, go back to feeling like they are running a fever, have an upset stomach, and may even have a headache. The symptoms clearly identify shingles when there is an obvious rash, and with the rash comes much paint and a horrible burning sensation. In some cases, patients reported having pain a few days prior to the rash appearing, but it is much more common to have the onset of pain when the rash appears.
The rash from shingles is usually confined to one side of the body, and shingles on the face may appear the same way. The shingles will appear as rash, with red, raised spots that are surrounded by a largely swollen area. This can be obvious when it shows up on the cheek. These spots will eventually turn into blisters and they will be filled with clear fluid, and appears to be very cloudy. The blisters will eventually dry out and become crusty, but they will most definitely remain painful and very itchy, and sometimes they will bleed.
Normally, the pain that comes with shingles on the face will go away once the rash dissipates. When the patient has an immune system that is compromised the healing process may take longer, so the patient should be carefully monitored by a doctor. Shingles on the face can take nearly a month or more to heal.