What treatments work for minor burns and scalds?
There are lots of different dressings and treatments for minor burns and scalds. No single treatment seems to work any better than the others. The most important thing is to keep your burn clean and covered with a dressing. • There are things you can do to limit the damage when you first get a burn. To read more, see First aid for minor burns and scalds. • Don’t put any cream or ointment on your burn. • There are lots of different dressings for burns, although there’s not much research to find out if one type works better than another. So we can’t say if any dressings work best for helping a burn to heal. • You need a dressing that won’t stick to your skin, so avoid cotton wool and other fibrous materials. • You can buy most dressings from a pharmacy without a prescription. • Paracetamol or ibuprofen can help the pain of minor burns. We’ve looked closely at the research into the different types of treatments for burns and scalds. We didn’t find any evidence that one type of treatment w
