Tea Tree Oil Side Effects

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Tea Tree Oil
Posted by Catherine (Leiden, Holland) on 03/04/2009

About a month ago, I changed from using Benzoyl Peroxide to Tea-Tree oil to treat spots and pimples. Maybe a week later, I developed a patch of Perioral Dermatis on my chin. I've been dabbing tea-tree oil on this patch since, thinking it might help but to no avail.
I've been looking into dermatitis and was interested to see if tea-tree was meant to be of any help so I googled it and the first few results were that tea-tree can CAUSE dermatitis! I've had patches of dermatitis before and thinking back, I'm pretty sure I was using tea-tree those times too... The thing is, is that I've been applying it to other parts of my face with no repercussions. Is it possible that using tea-tree could trigger perioral dermatitis when used around the mouth but NOT cause a reaction when used on other parts of the face? I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts.

Anyway, I'm going to stop using tea-tree completely and try using ACV, for the dermatitis at least.