Expert: Judy Frayne - 2/1/2011

Question
QUESTION: I am a diabetic on insulin.I am 46 years old male. I had folliculitis which was very well treated by phexin antibiotic & fucibet cream.

Now I have coin shaped crusts on the skin on my legs & buttocks  which start as skin abrasion & become roundish & yellow.I have been advised propionate cream but did not get results.I am now using tea tree oil for past one & half weeks wherein the rash has reduced but not gone completely.The itching has gone. But, there is pain beneath the skin of these coin shaped ashes.Pl. suggest some remedy of essential oils as it is very painful & disturbing to carry on like this.Pl suggest something which will also remove the crusts.

ANSWER: Thank you for your question. I have no personal experience of treating this particular problem, but I can recommend a few oils that may help with some of the symptoms.
Your use of tea tree oil is very good for it's antibiotic and antiseptic properties, and you should continue to use this.
There is a danger that Tea tree can be an irritant to the skin. Not everyone finds this. So here are some more suggestions for oils to put with Tea tree.
Lavender oil - applied neat to the affected areas, will cool and take the pain away. This can be applied as often as possible.It blends well with Tea tree oil, either neat or as a mix with a carrier cream.
Roman Cammomile - this again will help to sooth and kill the pain.
Finally, I would recommend Birch Tar oil. I have always found this to be very effective in clearing skin conditions.It smells quite strong, but it's worth it !
Apart from applying your Lavender and Tea tree oil neat to the affected areas, you could make up a 50ml pot of carrier cream - vitamin e cream for instance, without any perfume - with the following:
10 drops Lavender
10 drops Tea Tree
10 drops Roman Cammomile
5 drops Birch Tar

This would make a strong mix, but you could dilute it with more cream if you found it too strong. However you should notice a difference. You can apply this as often as possible. I think the cream would ultimately help to remove the crusty areas. Check with your doctor that this is ok.
When you apply the cream, make sure you wash your hands before taking out more cream, as you don't want to return any infection into the pot of cream.
You could try using Coconut oil as a carrier for your oils - this would also help to soften the crusty areas. Use the amounts above in a 50ml bottle of coconut oil.


I hope this helps. please don't hesitate to come back if you need to.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for all the info. Actually we have been able to get tea tree oil & birch tar out of the ones you have mentioned.camomile & lavender are not available here in Kolkata. Can you please let me know the combination in which we can use birch tar ?Can we apply only birch tar to the crusts directly ?

Answer
Hello
I would not use Birch Tar directly without diluting it first. If you are using Birch tar and Tea Tree I would only use one to two drops of each if you are applying about 10mls of carrier oil or cream. They are both strong and may irritate the sensitive areas without another oil to counteract this effect. Can you get hold of Patchouli oil ? Or even Benzoin. Either of these would be good with the other two oils, and are very healing for the skin.
If you are making up a bottle of oil or cream - say 50ml- 100ml - I would use up to ten drops of Tea Tree and 6 drops of Birch tar. If you can get Patchouli - up to 6 drops of Patchouli, and if you can get Benzoin - up to 6 drops of that. I would make a weaker mix first and increase the strength when you see how your skin reacts.

Tea tree is an oil that you can use neat on small affected areas, however it has the property of regenerating skin cells. I am not sure if would regenerate normal skin cells or encourage the crusted skin to reform. It sounds as if you have experimented with Tea tree and been successful so far.So I would only use the Tea tree undiluted on the affected areas.

Good luck.

Best wishes

Judy