What is a burn?
Based on how deeply and how severely they penetrate the skin, burns fall into as many as six categories called degrees, although practitioners tend to reference the thickness, rather than degrees. Healing time and capacity, as well as the level of scarring you can expect, all vary with the severity of the burn. Think of the last time you handled a hot stove or curling iron or spilled some moderately hot tea on yourself. You like sustained a first-degree burn that affected only the epidermis, or the outer layer of the skin.
Another example would be a mild sunburn. With a first-degree burn, there are no blisters, just redness, and some tenderness. A first-degree burn usually can be treated at home and will likely heal without a scar if treated properly. However, times you might need to seek medical care is if the burn is located on the ears, face, hands, feet, or genital area where you risk permanent damage. If the burn affects 10 percent of a child’s body, or 15 to 20 percent of an adult’s body (a good rule of thumb is if the burn covers an area larger than the size of your palm), then you should treat it as a serious injury. With a second-degree burn, however, the heat penetrates the epidermis into part of the dermis below. This leaves your skin looking red and blistered, There may be swelling, and it will be painful. A right-from-the-pot spill could result in a second-degree burn. A third-degree burn involves the full thickness of the skin, destroying the epidermis and dermis, and requiring medical care. Beyond this, burns may penetrate muscles, tendons, and even bones. At this point, the affected area will have little or no feeling as a result of nerve damage. It can look white, or it can look blackened and charred.
Reasons for getting burns
A burn takes place when the skin comes into contact with heat or with electrical or chemical agents. The most common sources of burns are fire, hot objects, and hot liquids. You can suffer various degrees if you come in contact with chemical burns caused by acids or solvent cleaners. Bleach, ammonia, paint thinner are common offenders. Friction burns such as road rash or carpet burn sound less ominous, but they can inflict a nasty wound. Frostbite, is also a kind of burn, even though it involves cold.
General treatment of general burns
Our knee-jerk response to a burn is to cool it down. In addition to immediately getting the affected area under cool running water, you can apply a cold, wet compress to help cool the area down. Applying aloe vera gel skin is another way to cool a burn. Common at-home treatment involves applying petroleum jelly two to three times daily. However, the research shows that this is no safer or more effective than applying toothpaste or butter to the burn; it may cause an infection. Cover the burn with a nonstick, sterile bandage. If blisters form, let them heal on their own while keeping the area covered. Over-the-counter medication, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, is often used to relieve the pain and reduce inflammation. It is really important to protect the area from the sun, as this will help minimize scarring. Wear protective clothing and apply sunscreen with an SPF of 30, or higher.
The advantages of using SilverStream®
We recommend SilverStream® for shortening the healing time of first and second-degree burns. In the clinical trials of more than a quarter-million patients, it was found to cut healing time by as much as half. The low concentration of silver ions is formulated to quickly destroy biofilm which is a substance that keeps your burn from healing. SilverStream® maintains the moisture level that is optimal for healing while protecting the area against microbes.
Not only does it get right to work to heal the wound, SilverStream® reduces pain and soothes the burn. It doesn’t sting when you apply it, it doesn’t have an odor, in fact, it reduces the odor of wounds.
How to use SilverStream® to treat general burns
Add SilverStream® to your care routine to speed up your recovery time by 30 -50%
- To treat a general burn, spray SilverStream® over the area 1-2 times daily.
- Rinse, by spraying the SilverStream® solution on the wound.
DO NOT INJECT (The needle should not touch the wound). - You can also spray the area from a spray bottle, or clean the area with gauze soaked in SilverStream®.
- Avoid touching your wounded skin with the bottle.
- Keep open skin covered with a non-stick gauze bandage.