Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffSigns and symptoms of sunburn include:
- Pinkness or redness
- Skin that feels warm or hot to the touch
- Pain or tenderness
- Swelling
- Small fluid-filled blisters, which may break
- Headache, fever and fatigue if sunburn covers a large area
Any part of your body, including your earlobes, scalp and lips, can burn. Your eyes, which are extremely sensitive to the sun's ultraviolet light, can also burn. Sunburned eyes may feel painful or gritty.
Signs and symptoms of sunburn usually appear within a few hours after sun exposure. But it may take a day or more to know the full extent and severity of sunburn.
Within a few days, your body starts to heal itself by "peeling" the top layer of damaged skin. After peeling, your skin may temporarily have an irregular color and pattern. Depending on the severity, it may take several days or more for the sunburn to heal.
When to see a doctor
See your doctor if the sunburn:
- Is blistering and covers a large portion of your body
- Is accompanied by a high fever, extreme pain, confusion, nausea or chills
- Doesn't respond to at-home care within a few days
Also, seek medical care if you notice signs or symptoms of an infection. These include:
- Increasing pain and tenderness
- Increasing swelling
- Yellow drainage (pus) from an open blister
- Red streaks, leading away from the open blister, which may extend in a line upward along the arm or leg
- Facts about sunscreen. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/media/background/factsheets/fact_sunscreen.htm. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Sun and your skin. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/sun_sun.html. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Habif TP. Light-related diseases and disorders of pigmentation. In: Habif TP. Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/123287021-7/0/1195/129.html?tocnode=51442195&fromURL=129.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-01319-8..50021-2_2348. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Wolf K, et al. Photosensitivity, photo-induced disorders and disorders by ionizing radiation. In: Wolf K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Color Atlas & Synopsis of Clinical Dermatology, 5th ed. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Mahoney KR (expert opinion). Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md. Feb. 4, 2009.
- Internal analgesic, antipyretic and antirheumatic drug products for over-the-counter human use: Tentative final monograph. Federal Register.1998;53:46204.
- Parenting corner Q&A: Sun safety. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_SunSafety.htm. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Rouhani P, et al. Melanoma in Hispanic and black Americans. Cancer Control. 2008;15:248.
- Skin cancer: Questions and answers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/chooseyourcover/qanda.htm. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Brice S, et al. Sunburn. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 4, 2009.
- Gibson LE (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 20, 2009.
