Contact Dermatitis

Your healthcare provider will diagnose contact dermatitis after taking a complete medical history, performing a physical exam and reviewing your symptoms.

There isn’t a test to identify the cause of irritant contact dermatitis, but your provider will ask questions to learn more about your environment, things you’ve come into contact with and the location and size of your rash. These questions could include:

• How long have you had a rash?
• Did you make any changes to your normal skin care routine?
• Did you come into contact with any new plants, materials or chemicals?
• Do you have regular contact with any irritants or chemicals?

For allergic contact dermatitis, your provider may offer testing, including a patch test to confirm a diagnosis. For a patch test, your provider will place a sticky patch on your skin. That patch is coated in common allergens. When your provider removes the patch, they’ll be able to see if the allergens on the patch triggered an allergic reaction on your skin.

Although uncommon, your provider might perform a skin culture or biopsy where they take a sample of the tissue from your rash and examine it under a microscope.