Paleness

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Overview & Considerations

Unless pale skin is accompanied by pale lips, tongue, palms of the hands, inside of the mouth, and lining of the eyes, it is probably not clinically significant, and does not require treatment.

Pale-looking skin does not necessarily indicate disease -- lack of sunlight or inherited paleness may be the reason.

Although generalized pallor affects the entire body, it is most apparent on the face, lining of the eyes, inner mouth, and nails. Localized pallor usually affects a single limb.

How easily pallor is diagnosed varies with skin color and the thickness and vascularity of the subcutaneous tissue. Sometimes it is only a subtle lightening of skin color. It may be very difficult to detect in a dark-skinned person; sometimes it is apparent only on the eye and mouth lining.

Paleness may be the result of decreased blood supply to the skin (cold, fainting, shock, hypoglycemia) or decreased number of red blood cells (anemia).

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