How To Easily Remove Band Aids

Download Commodity

Download Article

Applying clean adhesive bandages (Band-Aids™) is an important part of hygienic wound treat minor cuts and scrapes. Removing the bandage, however, is non always a pleasant process. Don't skip applying a bandage to avert the pain of removing one, however. Instead, attempt i of several methods to make removing a bandage less painful (or even painless).

1. 1

   Soak the cast in water. You've probably had the misfortune of coming beyond someone'south used cast floating in the gutter of a public swimming pool, and therefore are aware that exposure to water weakens a bandage'southward adhesion to skin.

   • No, don't go to your public pool. Soak in the bathtub for a chip, and so try removing the bandage. A leisurely shower may work equally well.
   • You tin can also only apply a moisture compress (such as a clean rag soaked in warm water) to the bandage and wait for it to soak through.^[1]
   • Taking a 15- to xx-minute bubble bath tin help loosen the adhesive likewise and information technology can exist particularly useful for kids.

2. two

   Utilise oils, soaps, creams, or lotions to weaken and lubricate the adhesive. People swear by dissimilar products -- olive oil, petroleum jelly, baby shampoo, or babe oil, to proper name a few -- but the process is similar regardless. Try different variations and see what works best for you lot and your family unit.

   • Use a cotton fiber brawl, cotton fiber swab, or just your finger to massage the product into the adhesive areas of the bandage. Work information technology in and allow information technology to saturate those areas of the bandage.
   • Peel a corner of the bandage up to run across if the adhesion has been weakened. If not, keep working in the oil or soap.
   • If then, pare abroad the remainder of the bandage in a quick motion. Use your other paw to gently printing the surrounding skin downwardly, if necessary.
   • 1 tip for kids is adding food coloring to infant oil so that you tin can "paint" the mixture onto the cast with cotton swabs. Brand it a fun experience instead of a worrisome one.^[2]

   Advertisement

3. 3

   Lubricate extra-viscid bandages even more. Instead of yanking off a stubbornly-stuck bandage quickly, weaken the agglutinative as mentioned in the last step, peel up a corner, then apply moisturizing balm to the contact point between skin and bandage equally you lot keep to slowly pull it away.^[3]

4. 4

   Dissolve the agglutinative with alcohol. You tin also use the lubricating technique with rubbing alcohol. The adhesive should slowly simply surely dissolve, and any adhesive remaining on the skin tin be rubbed abroad with the saturated cotton ball or swab.

   • There are also adhesive removal products marketed for bandage removal. Check medical or surgical supply stores if non available at your drugstore.^[four]

Advertisement

1. 1

   Don't avoid removing a cast past not using one. One of those $.25 of "old-time" wisdom that still circulates today is the idea that it is better to clean a small-scale cut, and so let it "air out" and scab over. Like putting butter on a burn or tilting your caput back during a nosebleed, withal, this is faux.

   • Small wounds actually heal better in a moist environment, in which blood vessels regenerate faster and inflammation-causing cells multiply more slowly. So, preventing scab formation really aids the healing process.^[5]
   • It may exist no surprise that the company behind Band-Aids promotes covering cuts and scrapes instead of airing them out, but they have science on their side.^[6]

2. ii

   Fix wounds properly for bandaging. Sometimes the worst role of pulling away a cast is not the viscous adhesive, merely dried blood / scabbing that pulls away with the cast and reopens the wound. Proper preparation can make this less likely.^[7]

   • End the haemorrhage of a minor cut or scrape by applying pressure with gauze, a paper towel, a clean cloth, etc. Use gentle force per unit area for up to fifteen minutes, until all bleeding has stopped.
   • For a big cutting or wound, an excessively dingy wound, or a wound that won't stop bleeding, get medical help.
   • Rinse the area with clean water and gently make clean the wound with lather and water. Rinse once again and pat dry with a clean material, etc. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or one of those old wound cleaners your grandfather swore by -- but manifestly old soap and water. Hydrogen peroxide and iodine tin can irritate an injury.

3. 3

   Consider moistening the wound to inhibit sticking. Antibiotic ointments have shown niggling testify in helping wounds heal faster, only they practise help keep the wound moist and make sticking less probable upon bandage removal.^[8]

   • That said, plain old petroleum jelly will provide the same moistening / lubricating do good.^[nine]
   • Apply a small-scale dab only over the wound itself, so the bandage will stick where it should.

4. 4

   Cover the wound with a cast. ^[x] Cull a cast that is large enough then that the pad (the part that isn't sticky) covers the entire wound with a piddling room to spare. Try not to touch the pad when applying to reduce infection chances.

   • Especially when wrapping a cast around a finger (or a larger bandage wrap around an arm or leg), brand information technology tight enough to stay in place and forbid a gap between pad and wound, merely not so tight that it hampers blood catamenia. If your finger tingles or turns purple-ish, information technology's too tight.
   • Use a new cast if the old 1 gets muddy or saturated with water.

5. v

   Become out your razor, if necessary. If yous need to apply a bandage to a hairy area -- for a man, an arm or leg, or even breast or back -- you lot may want to prevent the inevitable pain of the cast being stuck to your pilus by removing the hair first.

   • Utilize warm water, a fresh, make clean razor, and don't shave over the wound itself.
   • Unless y'all desire to have patchy hairless spots along with your small scars, you probably should try the other cast removal procedures discussed in this article before resorting to this step.

6. 6

   Have faith in medical science. Bandage removal is non just an annoyance -- some 1.5 million people in the U.S. annually, by and large infants and the elderly with sensitive skin, suffer scarring or irritation from cast removal. However, new bandages are being developed that sandwich a "quick-release" layer between the backing and dissolvable agglutinative.^[11]

   • So, mayhap painful bandage removals will be a thing of the past soon.

Advertisement

Add together New Question

• Question

  What about removing Band-Aids in a sterile way?

  

  Dr. DeMuro is a board certified Pediatric Critical Care Surgeon in New York. He received his Dr. from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in 1996. He completed his fellowship in Surgical Critical Intendance at N Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and was a previous American College of Surgeons (ACS) Fellow.

  

  Lath Certified Critical Care Surgeon

  Skillful Answer

  Ring-Aids come in sterile packaging, but they do not need to exist removed in a sterile fashion. Hands should be washed and make clean before removing your own Rough-and-tumble. Protective gloves, but non sterile ones, should exist worn for removing another person'due south Ring-Aid to avoid transmission of disease, with manus-washing before and afterwards the gloves.

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Advertisement

Video

About This Article

Article Summary X

The simplest mode to remove a Ring Aid painlessly is to soak it in water until the adhesive weakens and you tin pull information technology off easily. If that doesn't work, use soap or an oil like olive oil to loosen it. Simply rub some on with your finger and allow information technology to saturate the bandage. Then, peel up a corner of the cast to see if it is loose. If information technology is, rip it off quickly. If non, keep massaging the oil in. To acquire how to dissolve the adhesive with rubbing alcohol, and how to prevent bandages from sticking in the first identify, go on reading!

Did this summary assist yous?

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 527,149 times.

Did this article assist y'all?

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-a-Band-Aid-Painlessly

Share this post