Ideally you shouldn’t squeeze spots at home at all. If you do, you risk pressing acne bacteria into surrounding tissue and making the inflammation worse. You may even risk permanent scaring. When our medical aestheticians express spots in our dermatology clinic (as part of our medical grade acne facials), they have been specially trained by a dermatologist, and use a specialist technique with sterile instruments as well as gloves. You can’t copy that at home, so my advice is not to squeeze spots at home. Simply apply an antibacterial cream such as a benzoylperoxide cream (you can get this via your GP) and let the pimple dry out on its own accord.
IF however, you can’t help it and just HAVE TO squeeze, then my advice would be to use a needle technique (rather than plain fingers).
This is what I recommend: You will need a very fine sterile needle, alcoholic skin disinfection solution (you could also use this to sterilise the needle), fresh cotton buds and clean paper tissue. Before you start, wash your hands with soap and water. Use the needle to superficially scratch the surface of the pimple (where you see the white pus shining through), in order to release its pressure so that the pus comes out easily without the need to apply much manual pressure (this is important!). Wrap one clean paper tissue around each index finger and GENTLY squeeze the pimple from both sides (in the direction going upwards and inwards). If the pus does not come out without pressure, stop! Once (hopefully) the pus has come out, dip the cotton bud into the alcoholic skin disinfection solution and then rub the solution on the expressed pimple. That’s it!
Whether you have a medical skin condition which needs treatment or simply want to look your very best, our specialised dermatology team will help you achieve the very best result.
