Mum hospitalised squeezing spot on 'triangle of death' area of face
A woman ended up in hospital after squeezing a spot in the little-known ' triangle of death ' area - leaving her in 'excruciating' pain.
Alisha Monaco had no idea it was dangerous to pop a spot in the area on her face - between the corners of the mouth and the bridge of the nose. Due to its connection to the cavernous sinus, a region in the brain, picking or squeezing pimples can lead to serious infections.
Alisha, 32, shared her experience on TikTok and said the spot appeared to be an 'average' pimple, which she is prone to getting several times a month. After failing to pop it, she poked it with a sanitised pimple popper needle tool and her ear popped at the same time, leading her to become dizzy immediately.
She said: 'I knew I'd messed up. The pain was all on the right bottom side of my nostril, down to my lip and even up the side of my face. I woke up four or five hours later in excruciating pain on my right side of my face.
"The whole right side of my face was swollen, my smile was crooked and my ear felt clogged on the right side. It was brutal. I was in so much pain just trying to smile/talk.'
The mum-of-three called her husband to come home to be with the children in the morning while she went to hospital.
Alisha said: 'The urgent care staff was extremely kind to me and make a point to not let me feel embarrassed about being at the urgent care for popping a pimple. They were happy I came in because the swelling was so bad. I needed to get it treated immediately because the risk of infection in that location is dangerous.'
The Mirror reports that she was given four prescription medications to keep her symptoms at bay – as well as the chance of infection spreading – and was discharged.
Since her return home, she has been recovering well, but took to TikTok to share the dangers, having previously heard about the ' triangle of death' zone there.
She said: 'I had a feeling after I popped the pimple that I needed to look it back up on TikTok to double check and sure enough my pimple was right in the triangle of death area.
'I [then] just wanted to warn others to learn from my experience. I don't have a huge following on social media so I had no idea that it was going to go so viral, but from reading the comments of all the people who weren't aware that the triangle of death was a thing, I'm glad I did.
'Now everyone can see what happened to me and hopefully they will just put a pimple patch on and leave that area alone!'
Dermatologist Alok Vij said: "Think of this small segment of your face as a direct line to your brain. That's thanks to your cavernous sinus, a network of large veins located behind your eye sockets. Through this sinus, blood drains from your brain.
"An infection in the danger triangle — like from a picked pimple, or a nose piercing gone wrong — has a small but not impossible chance of traveling from your face right to your brain, without much distance to cover between them. There is the possibility for a facial infection to become an infection that impacts the rest of your body."
Dr Vij added: 'Thankfully, it's relatively unlikely, but whenever there's a violation of the skin and interaction with bacteria, there's always a possibility for infection, which can lead to greater health concerns.'
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