Don't ever try to treat  your warts or cold sores with anything before checking with your parents or dermatologist. It may make it worse.

Did you know that if you have acne, psoriasis, or hives you may need to go to a doctor? But not just any doctor, you would need to go to a dermatologist. A dermatologist is a doctor that treats skin conditions.

When you go to a dermatologist, they diagnose you by noting your skin problems and checking your skin. They can also help you prevent skin problems and treat problems that you already have by giving you prescriptions for lotions and drugs.

Dermatologists are also skin surgeons, performing surgery on the skin to prevent some skin diseases. There are many kinds of skin problems you can get.There are athlete's foot,  hives, cold sores, rashes, warts and many more. The most common skin problem for kids is acne. Once kids reach adolescence acne becomes a common occurrence. Acne is pimples that occur because of plugged pores in the skin.

Dermatologists can help treat acne and help reduce scarring that can happen because of acne. Skin problems can affect everybody from newborns to adults. So there is no certain age when you should start going to a dermatologist. You and your family members should go to a dermatologist whenever you have symptoms of a skin problem.

Some kids have really bad skin problems. For them, there is a summer camp called Camp Discovery that The American Academy of Dermatology sponsors every summer for a week. 

Credits

Websites

American Academy of Dermatology. "Camp Discovery." 2003 <http://www.aad.org/campdis.html>
(December, 2003).

What Is A Dermatologist? <http://add.org/dermatologist.html>
(December, 2003).

Images

Image of foot from "Microsoft ClipArt Online"<http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?cag=1> (February, 2004).