Can You Be Allergic to Band-Aids and Other Adhesive Bandages?

Symptoms of a Band-Aid adhesive allergy

If you’re allergic to adhesive bandages, you’ll often react to acrylate and methacrylate. These are chemicals commonly used in tape adhesives to make them sticky.

The two types of reactions to an adhesive allergy are irritant contact dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis. They have similar but slightly different symptoms.

Symptoms of both types of contact dermatitis include:

Allergic contact dermatitis leads to more severe versions of these symptoms. It’s an immune reaction to an allergen, but it usually only affects the area that comes into contact with the allergen.

Irritant contact dermatitis happens when the skin comes into contact with a toxic or irritating material. It can even be caused simply by the tight fit of the bandage.

Symptoms of allergic contact dermatitis can get worse with each exposure, while irritant contact dermatitis symptoms are usually the same intensity every time.