Treating Atopic Dermatitis in the Winter: Moisturizers, Ointments and Creams

Transcript

Bernard Cohen, MD:

Hi, I’m Bernard Cohen, I’m board certified in pediatrics and dermatology. People talk about ointments, creams, and lotions. From a cosmetic standpoint, especially in older children, adolescents, and adults, sometimes they're not very excited about using ointments aggressively. But ointments are 80 to 90% oil, and only 10% water. And again, you do want to have a little bit of water in the moisturizers you're putting on because that can actually increase the intake of water into the skin and became somewhat helpful. But like I say, ointments have a very nice barrier function and can put some water in your skin but then the ointment which has an oil base of 90% can actually protect against the water loss; can put some water in the skin because it has some water in the product. But it's very protected. When you get to a cream, you're talking about 50/50. 50% water-based product and 50% oil. And when you get to lotions, some adults, and certainly adolescents, may not be very excited about having ointments on the skin. They're only maybe 80% water and only 10 to 20% oil based. So if you're using lotions (and to some extent if you're using creams), it's important to apply them fairly frequently, especially if using a lotion; I'm talking about like 3 or 4 a day, particularly to areas that are exposed or areas that are most subject to the development of their atopic dermatitis.

Transcript edited for clarity