Do you get deeply penetrated splinter under the fingernail? How to remove a splinter at home? Does it cause infection? What are the best home remedies to remove a splinter or thorn? Read on the article to get answer of all these questions. In this article, we are discussing some of the best natural ways to remove splinter without causing pain.
You are likely to get splinter from different situations like use of chipped wooden furniture, barefoot walking, farming of thorny plants without gloves, careless carpentry, unfortunate accidents, etc.
Splinter can be removed at home if you know some tricks. However, it requires greater care because your carelessness can cause infection.
Advice
Before you start removing a splinter, wash the wound with mild soap or antiseptic gel. It will disinfect the area and decrease the chances of getting any kind of unwanted contagion.
Removing a splinter without causing pain is a tricky task which can be performed using different ways even at home. Here, we have come up with some effective ways to remove a splinter.
5 Natural Ways to Remove Splinter
Baking Soda in Aid
Do you get a deeply penetrated or tiny splinter? Baking soda would be the perfect home remedy for you. However, this method should be used after trying other tricks of removing thorn like tape, tweezer, and needle. As use of baking soda method will make your skin slightly swollen which is not the perfect situation to use other home remedies.
Prepare a thick baking soda paste and spread it onto a bandage. Apply a bandage on the affected area and leave it for next 24 hours. In most cases it will pull up the splinter and take it on the surface of the skin. If the splinter is visible then take it out using tweezers and wash the wound gently. If the splinter is still invisible then repeat the method every 24 hours until the splinter is gone. Just make sure that you are using new paste and bandage.
Apply Ichthammol Ointment
Does your child get a splinter in his/her finger or any other parts of the body? Use of Ichthammol Ointment would be the best way to get rid of that spiky object.
Apply this ointment gently and cover the wound with a bandage. Leave it for one day. After 24 hours, remove the band-aid and make sure that your child has got rid of the splinter.
Caution: Ichthammol Ointment has strong smell like car grease and your child may dislike it. If your child badly dislikes the smell, then go for other possible ways of removing splinter.
Use Potato Slices
It is a rarely used and not that much popular way of removing splinter. To use this method, cut the potato in thin slices and place one slice on the affected area for the whole one night. Make sure that you fix the potato slice by bandage. It will keep the slice on its place for next 24 hours. Next day it should pull out the thorn.
You can use banana peel or onion or tomato slice too as an alternative of potato.
Hydrogen Peroxide
If you got a visible splinter which is almost on the surface of the skin then use of Hydrogen Peroxide would be the quick way of removing splinter. Soak one cotton pad in Hydrogen Peroxide and rub it over the wound gently and wait for few minutes. The splinter will come out without making any additional efforts.
Bread and Milk
Make a piece of bread wet putting few drops of milk and place it over the affected area. Make sure that you use bandage to fix the piece of bread. After few hours splinter will stick to the bread and you can easily take it out. This method works best only for splinters on the surface area.
Considerations to Keep in Mind While Removing Splinter
Below are few things that you should consider while removing foreign object from your skin.
- Don’t make it fast. In rush splinter may break and will become even much harder to remove it.
- Don’t pressurize the affected area as it will push the thorn deeper or can break it as well.
- It would be much better if you can find out the material of splinter.
- Get help from someone else if you cannot access the splinter easily.
- Get a medical help if you get any types of inflammation.
