What to do for thermal burns?

Thermal burns are common in everyday life, for example, from an iron, steam, boiling oil, etc. In addition, thermal burns occur due to too much exposure to the sun.

What to do if you get burned by fire?

Fire burns not only cause severe pain, but are also a dangerous type of injury. Everyone should know what to do if they are burned by fire and what to do before the ambulance arrives.

First of all, you need to eliminate the source of the fire. If a person's clothes catch fire, you need to put them out with a strong stream of water or cover them with something thick to block the oxygen supply. It is worth noting that waving a piece of cloth, newspaper, etc., as this will only fan the flames more.

After the fire is extinguished, you need to remove the remains of burnt clothing from the affected areas of the body, which can smolder and make the situation even worse. You need to remove the fabric carefully so as not to cause more damage. Clothing that is burnt to the skin cannot be torn off, you can carefully cut off the edges or part of the clothing with small scissors, but if you do not have scissors at hand, you can leave everything and wait for the ambulance to arrive.

If the burn covers more than 10% of the skin, treatment should only be prescribed by a specialist; minor or small burns can be treated at home using conventional anti-burn medications (levomekol, panthenol) or traditional medicine methods.

What to do if you get burned by an iron?

Iron burns are quite common. Careless handling of the electrical appliance, haste, inattention - all this becomes the cause of injury, sometimes quite severe. What to do in case of an iron burn and how to act in such a situation is described below.

First of all, it is necessary to cool the damaged area (provided that there are no blisters). Cool running water can be used for cooling (but not ice water or ice). If there is slight redness, the area can be wiped with alcohol (40%) or a weak solution of diluted potassium permanganate. Blisters that appear should be treated with an anti-burn agent and covered with a clean bandage; it is contraindicated to open the blisters yourself.

In case of burns, it is recommended to drink plenty of fluids; in case of severe burns, you can take a painkiller.

Any burn after treatment must be covered with a clean bandage; gauze or bandage can be used as dressing materials.

For third-degree burns, you should only cover the damaged area with a clean bandage and seek medical attention.

You cannot treat the burn site with vegetable oil, fatty cream, egg, sour cream or other products containing fat, since fat reduces heat transfer and the affected tissues cool more slowly, which worsens the situation.

In addition, it is not recommended to use urine for compresses or to wipe the burn site, as the toxins contained in it can cause severe inflammation.

What to do if you get burned by a curling iron?

To make beautiful curls, women often use various devices, in particular a curling iron. This electric tool (especially if used carelessly) often leaves burns on the face and neck when the hot surface touches the skin and is considered thermal.

Many girls don’t know what to do if they get a burn and how to quickly remove the unsightly redness.

As with other thermal burns, you need to immediately cool the burned area: apply a cool compress, wash, etc. After that, you need to apply an anti-inflammatory and restorative burn cream (Panthenol, Levomekol). After a couple of days, the burned area can be lubricated with regenerating preparations (sea buckthorn oil, Bepanten, Aloe Vera).

If the burn is severe, blisters appear, there is severe pain, etc., you should consult a doctor.

What to do if you get burned in a solarium?

Burns from solariums are more common than from the sun. In a solarium, the intensity of ultraviolet radiation is much higher and the skin can burn in a few minutes or even seconds.

If you miscalculate the time or the sensitivity of your skin, you can easily get sunburned in a solarium, and you can get quite severe burns.

These types of burns are thermal, so cooling the skin is what you need to do first when you get a sunburn from a tanning bed. To do this, it is recommended to take a cool shower or bath with half a glass of baking soda, which will help soothe the skin and eliminate the burning sensation.

Panthenol and Aloe gel can be applied to burnt skin; it is also recommended to apply creams with antioxidants to the skin, which will help stop oxidative processes and prevent aging (cream with grape extract, green tea, etc.).

With such burns, you need to drink more fluids, which will help avoid dehydration and speed up the skin recovery process.

After a burn, you should avoid direct sunlight (or re-visiting a solarium), as this can only worsen the situation.

If blisters appear, do not puncture or damage them; opening blisters on your own can lead to infection and serious consequences.

What to do if you get a cold burn?

A cold burn, better known as a cold injury, occurs at low ambient temperatures or when the skin comes into contact with an icy surface (concrete, metal, any liquid).

Direct and indirect cold injury are distinguished. Indirect cold injury is observed in icy air, frostbite, and direct - in contact with cold objects. Cold injury is also divided into general (the entire body is affected) and local (damage to a certain part of the body, most often the hands).

In terms of the principle of action, cold injury is very similar to a burn. In the cold season, it is not recommended to touch icy metal objects with your hands - this can lead to cold injury. Freezing to the object is also possible, which will lead to more serious consequences. A cold burn can be more dangerous than a burn from hot metal, since when touching something hot, a person instinctively pulls away his hand, and when frozen to metal, this is impossible.

Severe cold burns are extremely rare. As a rule, severe cold burns are received by workers in cryogenic production or residents of those areas where very low air temperatures are observed.

What to do with cold burns depends on the degree of frostbite. First of all, it is necessary to eliminate the source of cold affecting the body (or part of the body). In case of frostbite of the extremities, it is necessary to warm them up to restore blood circulation and prevent the development of infection.

If a general cold injury occurs, the victim must be taken to a warm room, completely changed, and an ambulance must be called.

In case of minor frostbite, rubbing the affected area until redness appears with a woolen cloth, warm air (breathing), warm hands, light massage will help. After warming, you need to apply a dry bandage.

If frostbite of the second to fourth degree is not recommended, intensive rubbing of the affected area is not recommended, it is necessary to apply a heat-preserving bandage (a thick layer of cotton wool between gauze, a padded jacket, woolen fabric). If the extremities are frostbitten, they must be fixed with improvised materials (a board, thick cardboard, a stick, etc.).

When receiving a cold burn, it is recommended to drink hot drinks, take an aspirin tablet (No-shpa, papaverine), and you can give the victim a small amount of alcohol.

Rubbing frostbitten tissue with snow is not recommended, as this can lead to damage to blood vessels and infection.

Rapid attempts to warm the victim (hot water bottles, fire) worsen the course of cold injury. Rubbing with alcohol, fat, or oil is also ineffective in cases of deep frostbite.

In case of mild cold injury, the victim can be warmed in warm water, starting at 240C, then gradually raising the water temperature to 36 – 370C.

In case of moderate or severe frostbite, difficulty breathing, weak pulse, it is necessary to immediately call an ambulance or take the victim to the hospital.

What to do in case of an electrical burn?

Electric burns can occur when lightning strikes, when touching wiring (especially faulty wiring), or when touching high-voltage wires. Often, small children who climb into sockets or try to bite through wires suffer from such burns.

When an electric burn occurs, two marks remain: the first is where the electricity entered the body, and the second is where it exited (most often in places of contact with metal, ground, etc.). Also, when an electric shock occurs, nerve endings and blood vessels are damaged.

What to do in case of an electrical burn depends largely on the location of the injury. If there is a suspicion of a neck or spine injury, it is forbidden to move the victim, it is necessary to immediately call an ambulance and wait for help from specialists.

If the electric shock occurred from an electrical appliance, you need to disconnect the appliance from the network (if it happened outside, you need to find power engineers who will turn off the voltage).

After this, it is necessary to feel the pulse and breathing (if there is no breathing or pulse, it is recommended to perform an indirect heart massage).

What to do if you get burned by an ultraviolet lamp?

Ultraviolet light can be dangerous for human skin and eyes, as they are very sensitive to this type of radiation. Long-term exposure to an ultraviolet lamp can cause skin burns (similar to sunburn), and ultraviolet light can also cause severe eye burns, and this can happen in just a few minutes.

Almost everyone knows what to do if your skin is burned by an ultraviolet lamp, as such burns are similar to sunburns. In this case, cooling agents, Panthenol, etc. are used.

The situation is much more complicated with UV eye burns. The whole danger of such injuries is that the symptoms begin to appear several hours after the injury and a person cannot always understand what happened.

Eye burns are manifested by severe pain, photophobia, and a sensation of sand in the eyes.

To reduce pain, apply a cool compress to the eyes (cotton wool or gauze soaked in cold water).

After this, use eye drops that relieve irritation and have an antibacterial effect (it is better if they are prescribed by a specialist).

In addition, in case of eye burns, it is necessary to darken the room in which the victim is located, since light causes severe pain to the affected eyes.