How Are Your Wound Smarts?

Washing the wound with tap water helps remove bacteria and loose material. Many antiseptics can be irritating. Your wound can also take longer to heal if you use an antiseptic. Talk with your health care provider about using a product with cadexomer iodine to clean and protect the wound.

Changing your bandage every day can help prevent infection. When applying a bandage, be sure that it is not too tight, or it could cut off your circulation.

Using the correct dressing and changing it when it needs to be changed can help the wound heal as it should. The dressing can affect:

• How fast the wound heals
• How strong the healed skin is and how well it works
• How the wound looks after it heals. This means whether the skin has a scar or a change in color.

Your health care provider will tell the best type of dressing for your wound. You may need different types of dressing as the wound heals.

Do not remove a blood-soaked bandage. Instead, put a clean bandage over it, and apply more pressure to the wound. Call your health care provider if you have concerns about bleeding from a wound.

First aid creams, antiseptics, and butter can seal in the heat from a burn, and they won't relieve the pain. If your burn is minor, hold it under cold water, then apply an antibiotic cream or ointment and put a dry, sterile bandage on it. Be sure to apply the bandage loosely. Covering your burn with a bandage can help keep air out and prevent infection. Keep an eye on the burn for signs of infection.

Don't remove a foreign object from a wound. If you are wounded by an object such as a nail, have your doctor remove it.

Any wound can become infected if you don't clean it or protect it properly. Infection can occur within 24 hours of the injury but can take three to four days to develop, so watch the wound closely.