Would it be safe to remove a cyst myself if i use a sanitized knife? Its on the left side of my face, right in the middle of my cheek. its about as big around as the end of a q-tip

I don't think it would be very wise to do it yourself. You should probably see a doctor about having it removed.

I don't think so. If you cut it off yourself, you run the risk of it profusely bleeding, you run the risk of getting a massive infection and landing yourself in the hospital for a week/you might have to get surgery to fix it(if the infection's bad enough), its not as sanitary as you think. I would absolutely go to the doctor to get it cut off, its much safer than doing it yourself.

Ouch I would not think so. It might get infected and that could get serious.

If you cut on your face you will leave life long hole on your cheek.but if you insist on self mutilation make sure and boil your cutting apparatus for at least 10minutes and to thoroghly clean your face. If i were you I would get some xylocaine and rub generous portions on your cheek. Once you have cut into the sist be sure and see how big it is you will want to find out how deep the root is and how big for if you cut it wrong you will more than likely bleed lots. and i'am not trying to scare you I'am telling you what will more than likley happen. If it continues to bleed and you still resist going to a hospital. You will need some anti coagulant get the stuff they use for horses this is easy to get. We used to use all the time for removing worts, and I mean it feel like a hot iron going through your most privates it hurts. if you are not able to get the whole sist out you might get lucky and have killed the sist. but if you are going to bleed you might as well try and rip the root out you will know what root because this happens to be tender. I hope this helps you I mean no disrespect but this is what I can realistcally offer for your home cutting all the best chuck

I do not want to say for sure but you might want to look into some type of garlic treatment for that. My mother bandages garlic "slime" lol for lack of a better word, to a huge mole once and it came out in one piece, although a bit painful. She never had a problem since. I have heard similar thingas about cysts but i don't remember. I think I would look before cutting. The answer most likely lies in changing the environment in the body that grew the cyst. The cyst I believe is a symptom of whatever is going on at the core. Think about cutting cancer off your face as "doctors " do. They leave the environment unchanged and it grows more cancer. To tell you what I wiould do, I would drink apple cidar vinagar (organic) every day in water. I use it for everything. I think I might actually use it on the cyst too. I would flush it out and clean up the "environment"there are great sites you can look into and I can tell you that I am never sick, have clear bright skin and lots of other benefits.I use virgin olive oil on my fave and drink the vinagar daily 2-3 times if i can

Absolutely not! You need it removed either by a surgeon or Dermatologist, using a sterile environment. For now, the only safe thing to do is put hot compresses on it, and see if it drains on it's own.

My husband had that...it grew about the size of a marble. The surgeon sliced his face open and all this white puss stuff came out. Really gross....Answer is no you need to see a surgeon.

Yeah , sounds like a bad idea to me.

I have one in my arm. I've thought before about removing it myself, but haven't done so because of the fear of hitting a vein or causing infection.

It's perfectly harmless, so I haven't seen a doctor about it.

Your face contains more nerves and nerve endings, than any other part of your body.

What you have described is not a procedure for a novice.

Why take the risk of infection?

Go see a doctor. he can perform this in his office.

Ok dude - if you're going to do this, read this first - http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020401/1409.html - It's the proper procedure used by doctors - required equipment listed and everything. Of course it will be safer to get the pros to do it, but if you're definate about self surgery then at least know the tried and tested methods..

Good luck.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020401/1409.html

Only if you are insane

My father had a cyst in the location, his dermatologist refused to remove it due to its location.

Dad had to go to a plastic surgeon to have it safely removed.

Please DO NOT remove it yourself.

I also had a big cyst in my cheek. I went to the dermatologist to have him cut it out and he said that he could not cut it out. He did, however, put a shot of a steroid into it. He did this once a month for two months. And because I had several other dormant cysts in my face, he put me on a 6 month treatment of Sotret (acutaine) I have been cyst free ever since.

its safe... my uncle did it on his pinky toe one time. Use a shaving BLADE, not a knife. Then shave it off in swiping downwards motions...

any where but the face.but if you're going for it clean everything before,during and after.i have giving myself and friends stitches before,no bigs.

Ya sure if you want to infect your face with a bad infection of bleed to death,Go see your GP and he/she will get it sorted for you without much hassle.They will drain or in most cases remove,no big deal.

I've removed hundreds of cysts from my body over the past 30 years.... it all depends on your threshold for pain, and desire to rid your body of this irritating matter... I usually sterilize a pair of tow nail clippers and pick away at it until I am able to pull out the roots.. if it rips be prepared for a long, painful process of removing the fragments.. I'd rather do it myself after being subjected to butchery at my dermatologists office .. armpit and earlobes are the toughest

If you cut a nerve, you will have paralysis in the face. Be careful.

yes it is safe so long as you sanitize your cutting tool (and even sometimes if you don't).

I once had one on my neck that i very accidentally got rid of. Basically I swam in a pool for about an hour (which made my skin really soft and wrinkly from the water). I then shaved and accidentally cut the cyst. Not enough so that i noticed at the time, but later in the day I kept smelling something really gross. I finally realized that it was coming from the cyst and that I must have cut myself. I then pushed against it with a paper towel to see if there was anything coming out and sure enough there was white smelly puss (it was gross).

Anyways, then i squeezed it as empty as i could get it. Two weeks later it was completely gone and has never come back (been about 8 years).

And for the record the cyst at the time was about the size of a half marble before i got rid of it and I had had it for about 4 years at the time.

No it would not. Since it is on your face, go to a plastic surgeon who can remove it with as little scarring as possible.

Better idea.. Go pretend to be robbing a liquor store and when the cops get there aim at them with your gun and let them do it for you...
No..not a good idea. it's gonna hurt like holy bejesus and you might bleed all over your moms new carpet and get infected badly!
I removed my own broken jaw wires and that REALLY hurt. I got lucky and it didn't get infected, but damned sure enough hurt like a bat out of hell!

Like most people are saying, sounds like a bad idea. You probably need a little suture in it as well, but you definitely can't do that yourself and keep your work sterile at the same time. Baaaad idea. See a doc or just keep the cyst!

I had 2 cysts on the top of my head that drove me nuts!

I tried using a razor but couldn't break my desire to not cut myself and so after a couple nicks I had to stop.

I ended up trying a needle and realizing it wasn't leaving a big enough hole to push the stuff out so I took a small nail :-) which also appealed to my macho side more so then a needle did. Made sure to wipe it down and then I pushed it in and presto after some squeezing and grossness it was all done.

I don't know that mine was the wisest way to do it :) but it was free and the nail will leave less of a scar then a knife would have.

I used a 7/8" X 17 Ga wire nail.

P.S. where the cysts were I didn't have much feeling due to the cyst so it was easy to push in and once you are past the skin bubble at the top you don't feel anything on the inside.

No! When cysts are removed the surgeon also removes surround tissue which is affected. Also you don't know how deep the cyst goes either. See a doctor and let him/her arrange a small operation for you. He will more than likely do the procedure himself.