However small the “owie,” it can still hurt quite a lot (like the notoriously painful paper cut), and it requires your attention to avoid any risk of infection.
When you’ve got a small cut or light abrasion, follow the steps below to make it feel–and heal–better. Seek medical help if the cut is bleeding profusely, is very deep, involves the eye area or causes concern.
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Both children and adults alike are not immune to accidental cuts or scrapes. Oftentimes, anyone can easily cut himself or herself out of sheer clumsiness. Having such kinds of small wounds may not be lethal in itself, as small cuts or scrapes can be considered minor wounds.
However, being wounds, they expose the body to other possible infections and diseases simply because any wound on the skin is actually an entry point for harmful pathogens.
Any physical injury on the skin that leads to a break in the outer protective layer of the skin can be considered either to be a cut or a scrape.
Piercing and slicing injuries cause a cut on the skin. On the other hand abrasions on the skin leading to a roughening of the skin layer lead to scrapes-the degree of severity varies with the seriousness of injury.
When you get a cut and when the cut is still fresh, it will not pain you much and even so for not more than a couple of hours. If the cut starts paining, say two or three days later, it is considered to be a sign of an infected cut.
A cut that is infected will appear red and swollen and the area around it will be warm and sometimes even hot. Red streaks can be noticed on the skin surrounding the cut and the skin here will also be tender to touch.
If you see pus oozing out from the cut along with the other symptoms mentioned above, you can be sure that the cut is indeed, infected. Other symptoms of an infected cut include high fever, itchiness around the cut, boil or blister around the cut, etc. Read more on infected cut on finger.
Cut and Scrapes Treatment
1. You m12ight also like to drink tea brewed with feverfew and ginger to reduce the inflammation. Drink this tea thrice a day.
2. If your lips have cuts because they are chapped, then it is advisable to keep yourself well-hydrated. Carry along a water bottle wherever you go and drink water regularly through the day. This keeps you, your lips and body well hydrated.
3. When you buy a lip balm, look for hydrating ingredients such as coconut oil, jojoba, almond, shea butter, beeswax and vitamin E. You can also use petroleum jelly. If you have sensitive skin, then do not use camphor-based lip balms as these can cause irritation.
4. You might want to use a humidifier to add some moisture to dry indoor air.
Home Remedies for Cuts
1. Wash the wound well, apply ground ginger on it and bandage the wound.
2. Apply garlic on the wound or cut. The allicin in garlic speeds up the healing process.
3. If your skin has bruised, apply a cold compress for half an hour. After applying a cold compress, the next day, apply heat pads on the affected area to improve blood circulation.
4. If the cut is deep or large, raise the injured part above the level of the heart to reduce the bleeding. Use a sterile gauze pad and apply pressure to stop bleeding.
5. Apply turmeric powder over the wound and dress it with a bandage. Turmeric powder will stop the bleeding.
6. Chamomile flower reduces swelling and prevents infection.
7. Yarrow speeds up the clotting of blood in cuts.
8. Include high amounts of garlic and onions in your diet.
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