Cuts and Scrapes

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CUTS AND SCRAPS

It's easy to accidentally slice your thumb while cutting a bagel or gash your hand in a piece of broken glass while doing dishes. Or perhaps you've slipped on loose gravel, scraping your knee or elbow.

Speed up the repair process

Apply pressure

Gently press a clean, damp towel against a cut or scrape for up to 20 minutes, until the bleeding stops.

Wash the wound

It is vital that you clean dirt out of a cut or scrape so that it doesn't cause infection. Gently rinse a scrape under running water until it is totally clean.

Repeat three times a day

Sizable cuts or scrapes should be cleaned three times a day.

Top it off with ointment

For years doctors thought that cuts and scrapes heal better when they are dry. Research shows, however, that the opposite is true: "If you keep wounds moist, they heal more quickly and with a nicer cosmetic result.

Seal it to heal it

Women doctors recommend a new type of over-the-counter product called a colloidal dressing. Its a porous, gelatin like material that sticks on your skin like contact paper.

Leave it alone

Leave the dressing on for two to five days. It will natuarlly loosen and come of it's own-or it will wash off in the shower. Then you can replace it if necessary.

Tape it shut

If you don't have any colloidal dressing available, traditional bandaging will do. To keep both edges of a small cut together and help it mend, pull the cut closed and stick the edges together with a small strip of surgical tape.

Put on the covers

Protect the wound with a gauze bandage if the cut or scrape is small. Apply the bandage loosely so that the wound can air out without being connstricted.

Dress and undress

Change the dressing two or three times a day-whenever you wash the injury.

Give it some support

If you have a large cut or scrape on your leg or a lower extremity, support the surrounding tissue and reduce swelling by putting on an elastic bandage or pulling on an elastic knee-high stocking or some support hose. You don't want it to be tight-just supportive.