Calcification found in scalp????

My 11 yr old daughter found a bump on her scalp and told me it was hard.  When I took a look at it, it looked odd to me.  It did feel very hard and I scratched at it a little which made her cry out that it hurt.  I sort of squeezed it like you would a pimple and it started coming out.  I was able to grasp it with my fingernails and pull it out of her scalp.  It was a hard and sort of looks like a calcification of some sort.  What could this be????

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

From the description of your symptoms it sounds like sebaceous cyst. Sebaceous cyst is a closed sac or cyst below the surface of the skin and fills with a fatty white, semi-solid material called sebum produced by sebaceous glands of the epidermis.It is usually painless but can become painful if infected.Then antibiotics are needed.

If painless apply warm compresses on the lump.But if it becomes painful or starts growing in size then evaluation from adermatologist is required.

Hope it helps .Take care and pls do keep us posted in case you have any additional queries.Kind regards.