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It can take between 6 months and 2 years for the dermatitis herpetiformis rash to resolve. The symptoms of dermatitis herpetiformis arise from deposits of certain antibodies building up in the skin. These deposits attract immune cells leading to inflammation and blistering. It can take 10 years for the deposits to be reabsorbed although symptoms resolve long before this.

Welcome to the forum, Linda! Many on this forum can sympathize with you. It can be extremely difficult to get reliable information about gluten when it comes to meds, supplements and oral hygiene products. This is especially true since so much of this stuff is generic and comes from over seas. I will deflect with regard to your question about meds and oral products but take you in another direction. Have you tried a low iodine diet. Iodine is known to exacerbate dermatitis herpetiformis and some find that a low iodine diet helps reduce the number of outbreaks. By the way, have you had your celiac antibodies retested recently? If they are elevated that might be a clue that you are getting gluten in your oral hygiene products or meds.

Hi. I’m 70 years old, and a 22 year survivor of head and neck cancer treated with chemo-radiation, which resulted in non-existent submandibular salivary glands and extreme dry mouth and altered oral mucosa. I have been using dry mouth toothpaste, Rx oral dentrifices and moisturizers for years.  I’ve recently been diagnosed with severe celiac dermatitis herpetiformis. I was being treated with oral Dapsone, but it was not effective and I developed some serious side effects. So, the medication was stopped and I was started on Doxycycline (another antibiotic) for inflammation. I’ve been using Rx Betamethasone steroid ointment with little to no effect. I have tried every oral and topical antihistamine treatment available OTC. None have touched this horrible relentless itching. That is my history.  Now to my question. Does anybody know about gluten free toothpastes and mouth moisturizers? I ask because a very common dry mouth brand stated to me that they were indeed gluten free. But as I am not getting any better with my dermatitis herpetiformis, I was wondering if I was getting glutenized some way other than diet as  I have been following a strict clean gluten free diet, but I am not seeing any improvement at all. So, I started looking up the toothpastes and moisturizer ingredients individually and nine (9) of the eleven (11) or so listed showed up as   containing gluten or that may have gluten! Am I getting glutenized orally by these products?  As an aside, I checked on my favorite lavender scented baby lotion which is supposed to be gluten free, but many of those ingredients when investigated separately, show they  do contain or may contain gluten as well. I stopped using the lotion. But I cannot forgo my dental care. I was unable to get any information from the manufacturer of my current brand of chewable multivitamins either. They told me to check with my doctor. If THEY don’t know what’s in their product, how do they think a PCP will?  In light of all this, I am confused and angry that I might keep getting contaminated with gluten through products I am using that are supposedly gluten safe. *I should also state that I have a nickel allergy since I was about 12-13 years old. And I developed a contact allergy to latex (gloves) when I was a student nurse at 19 years old.  I know and I’m sorry that this is so lengthy. I’m trying to do everything I can to combat this condition, and I’m feeling very confused, anxious and angry about not getting adequate information as I try to educate and advocate for myself. I’m hoping someone here is more knowledgeable than me of how to navigate through all of this. Can anyone offer any advice?  Thank you for your time.  Respectfully,  Linda

Genetic testing cannot be used to diagnose celiac disease but it can be used to rule it out and also to establish the potential to develop celiac disease. About 40% of the general population has the genetic potential to develop celiac disease but only about 1% actually develop it. To develop celiac disease when you have the genetic potential also requires some kind of trigger to turn the latent genes "on", as it were. The trigger can be a lot of things and is the big mystery component of the celiac disease puzzle at this point in time with regard to the state of our knowledge.  Your IGA serum score would seem to indicate you are not IGA deficient and your tTG-IGA score looks to be in the normal range but in the future please include the reference ranges for negative vs. positive because different labs used different reference ranges. There is no industry standard.

Since nearly 40% of the population have the genes for celiac disease, but only ~1% end up getting it, a genetic test will only tell you that it is possible that you could one day get celiac disease, it would not be able to tell whether you currently have it or not.