How to deal with burns, can toothpaste be used?

Burns are inevitable in life. Some friends may use ointment to cover them. This practice is not advisable because some substances in toothpaste will block the breathing of skin cells and may lead to more serious situations.

Severity of burns

First-degree burns are the mildest type of burns and only damage the surface of the skin, causing mild local redness and swelling, no blisters, and obvious pain.

Second-degree burns and moderate burns not only damage the epidermis, but also the middle layer of the skin, causing blisters and obvious pain.

Third degree burns are the most serious burns. The subcutaneous tissue, fat and muscles are all damaged and the burnt skin appears gray or reddish brown, or even turns black and burnt. At this time, due to nerve damage, the patient may not feel pain.

Steps/Methods

Rinse the wound with tap water. Whether it is a scald caused by boiling water or steam, you should first lower the temperature of the scalded skin to reduce further damage to the scalded area. At the same time, flushing with water can also reduce pain. If the wound is not broken, soak it for about 10 minutes. If the wound has broken, do not soak it again to avoid infection. If the burn area is too large, soak the entire body in the bathtub. You can also use a towel dipped in water to apply to areas that cannot be washed with water.

Do not take off your clothes in a hurry. When the burn is in an area covered by clothes, do not take off your clothes in a hurry to avoid tearing the blisters caused by the burn. You can rinse with water to cool down first, and then carefully remove the clothes. Deal with blisters correctly. If there are blisters on the burn site, whether to break them or not depends on the specific situation. Generally, do not break them to avoid leaving scars. However, sometimes large blisters or blisters located at joints that are more easily broken need to be broken with a sterilized needle. If the blisters have already broken, use a sterilized cotton swab to wipe off the liquid around the blisters.

Use gauze to bandage the burn. First, apply some ointment on the burn, and then bandage it with clean gauze. After two days, remove the gauze and check the wound. If there is improvement, continue to apply some ointment and then bandage it again. Generally, burns can heal within two weeks, but if the wound is found to be infected, you should seek medical treatment immediately.

Protect the wound well, avoid direct sunlight on the burned area, do not let the bandaged wound come into contact with water, and do not move the burned area too much to avoid friction between the wound and the gauze, which will increase the healing time of the wound.

How to deal with third-degree burns: When the burn is too severe, if it reaches third-degree burns, it should be covered or exposed with clean gauze first, and then quickly sent to the hospital for medical treatment. Do not apply medicine on the wound.

Note: Do not use ice to cool the wound, so as to avoid the temperature being too low and causing the damaged skin wound to worsen. Do not apply toothpaste immediately after a burn, as toothpaste will make it impossible for the heat from the skin to dissipate, so it can only diffuse deep into the subcutaneous tissue, thus causing deeper damage. Do not use soy sauce to treat wounds. First, soy sauce does not have any healing properties. Second, the color of soy sauce will affect the doctor's diagnosis.