How to prevent a burn from leaving a scar?
 

What measures do you take after getting a burn from cooking?
How do you treat the burn so that it will not leave a scar?

What about an old burn scar? can it be treated?
Thanks for any help.

Vitamin E oil is good for reducing scarring.

Aloe on the burn right away also helps... (I had an aloe plant that i kept right in the kitchen, and if i burned myself -which was often, i'd snip a leaf and it helped.

The old wives tale of butter on a burn is actually bad... so don't do that.. Cold water is preferred

I've seen commercials for this stuff, but I've never tried it, so this is just passing on information:

Mederma

It's meant to reduce the appearance of scars, but I haven't seen anything about it preventing or eliminating scars.

Burn treatment 101, from a former baker :

Immediately upon burning yourself, immerse the affected area in cool water. Ideally, you should immerse the burn for 10-15 minutes; if that isn't possible wrap a cool, damp cloth over it and change periodically. The goal is to reduce the temperature of the tissue. If you're fast and the burn isn't bad, you may be able to reduce the severity and avoid blistering.

If the burn blisters, add a bandage and change as necessary. Be very gentle and do not pop the blister - doing so will increase the risk of infection, which will worsen any scarring. Use vitamin E on it once or twice daily until the scar fades.


Vitamin E is effective on new scars, but nothing short of time or cosmetic surgery will remove a scar completely. If you use aloe or a cream, you should be able to bring down the swelling and redness and will make the scar you do end up with less noticeable.

A second degree burn will scar - a first degree burn may or may not, depending on how bad it is. Any third degree burn requires immediate medical treatment, but if you ever get one you won't need me telling you that. Third degree burns will leave permanent scars, but milder burn scars will fade over time. I have very few of my scars left from my days baking - the ones that are still there are the ones I didn't cool off immediately.

what always worked for me and my family was to cut a slice of potato and apply it to the burn and change it periodically. It seemed to suck up evidence of a scar.

I don't have any suggestions for preventing them, but if the scar isn't too bad, it'll probably go away. I had a pretty nasty burn from an iron that left a scar for a few years, but it's gone. I also got a fresh from a popper popcorn kernel stuck in my bra (don't ask) that scarred, but it eventually faded too. I didn't do anything special to either burn and didn't use any sort of cream on them...they just went away on their own.

Change the bandages on a burn making sure to use antibiotic ointment while it's healing. If it blisters, poke a small hole in the blister to remove the fluid, but don't remove the blister. Even though the skin is probably dead and will fall off, it protects the new layer of skin beneath and you will have less of a scar. After it's mostly healed, use vitamin E lotion or ointment. You can even buy vitamin E pills and squeeze the stuff out onto the burn.

My wife got badly burned on her forearm a few years ago. The ER doctor gave her a cream with silver nitrate in it. She had to change the dressing twice a day for about 2 weeks. Then she was told NOT to let expose the burn area to the sun for a few months. She wore a sock on her forearm all summer. The only time you can tell she got burned there is when she does get a tan on her arm, but it is not very noticeable at all. Good luck.

Mederma is one of the biggest ripoffs in history. The active ingredient is onion extract.

For treating the burn right away, burn gel is key. Cool the burn per Martian's suggestions, then apply burn gel--silver nitrate if you've got it, otherwise Bactine liquid is fine. Don't use Neosporin; the petroleum keeps the heat of the burn from getting out. Bandage the burn (only with plain COTTON gauze and minimal tape)and ice it periodically to help get the heat out and help with the pain.

Use vitamin E oil to help with the scarring afterwards--but taking care of the burn well to begin with (and not popping the blisters) will prevent scarring.

That's advice from a former line cook. When I first started working that job, my fingers were constantly getting burned. Eventually I evolved superfingers. To this day I can still pick up hot food off of a hot grill with bare fingers without getting burned. Nice.

Advice from the ER doctor who sewed up my face - keep scars out of the sun if you want them to fade away.

Same advice from the surgeon who plucked out my thyroid. Even in minimal sun exposure always apply zinc oxide to the area after it's healed to prevent it from tanning or burning at all.

-bear

You should NOT immerse the burn in cold water, but intsead run it under flowing cold water where possible. Immersing a burn in cold water actually causes the water around the burn to begin warming up, making it far less effective to cool a burn.

My last burn which is a 2nd degree burn I ran under slow flowing tap water for around 25 minutes before placing a bag of frozen peas on it. My partner is a chef and I am a nurse so I deal with burns all the time.

I've also been using Paw Paw ointment to treat my burn. I know it's going to scar but hopefully it won't be as bad if I treat it properly.

Pretty good advice so far - cool the tissue with water (I wouldn't use ice; maybe icewater) to minimize the damage; apply aloe (Aloe barbedensis - if you want to go out and buy the correct plant), and vitamin E.

Interesting advice on sun exposure - my scars don't tan or burn at all. But I guess it's logical to assume that irradiating a burn doesn't help the healing process.

Don't do this, a blister is sterile on the inside. Pop it and now you no longer have what's basically a sterile liquid bandage over your burn.

I had a motorcycle accident....
 

So I guess when it comes to scar treatment for burns this might work since it worked for me and I have little to no scaring. I used a product called
mepiform by molnlycke (you can find this item at your local saveritemedical or online they have a website) which helped to minimize the scar tissue from forming i also applied a product called sylvadine (my doctor gave me a perscrition for this item.) which had silver in it. The combination of the two products worked for me. If anyone is interested in my before and after pictures message me since the results are pretty astonishing.