Say you were just dismissed from a hospital after a major surgery or you are currently having a minor cut or wound from an activity you just engaged, whatever your situation is, taking care of your wound is a critical part after the cut took part.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Having the right type of wound dressing is critical as it will really help you in reducing your pain level. The right dressing will also prevent your wound from being infected by bad bacteria or germs that are flying in the air or live in your skin or body. It is also critical for some wound to be covered by the right dressing to apply compression for hemorrhage to protect the wound and surrounding tissue, as well as to create a moist condition for your wound to heal.

It is true that the right person to decide what type of wound dressing is best for your wound is your doctor. However, it is good to understand the different types of wound care dressing for your knowledge.

TYPES OF WOUND DRESSING AND THE MOST SUITABLE WOUND IT WILL CURE

Gauze. This is the type dry dressing that is the easiest for you to get including your regular bandages. It is good to have this type of dressing always available in your house for a first aid since the nature of this dressing is best for minor cut or wound that will dry by its self and this type of dressing is also can be considered as your secondary dressing meaning it will always support the first other dressing you might use for a more serious wound.

Gauze can also acts as your wet-to-dry dressing. Soak it in a saline solution before putting it on your wound and it will help to debride your wound as the sponge dries as well as your wound. However, practicing this at home will need extra attention on the hygiene applied as this dressing will not protect your wound from the germs and bad bacteria in your environment.

Tulle. Not like a bandage that might-by-one-or-other-way-stick to your wound, tulle does not stick to your wound surface. Hence, this dressing is usually best applied for wound that has a flat and shallow surface especially for patient that has a sensitive skin. Some tulle also has a certain ointment that can help keeping your wound moist.

Semipermeable film. This dressing is a sterile sheet of polyurethane coated with acrylic adhesive. It has a transparent surface that allows those who practicing wound care to check the wound condition easily. This dressing is most suitable for shallow wound with low exudate.

Hydrocolloids. This dressing is available in the form of pads, paste or powder and it is composed of carboxymethylcellulose, gelatin, pectin, elastomers, and adhesives that will turn into a gel when exudate is absorbed. This type of gel is important for wound that produces light or heavy exudate as well as sloughing and granulating wound since this type of gel will create a warm and moist setting for the wound and enhance healing process.

Hydrogels. As you are aware from its name, this type of dressing is composed mostly with water ina complex network or fbres that keep the polymer gel intact. Again, the high level of water in this type of dressing will help to keep your wound moist and fasten the healing process. This dressing is good in helping removing the dead tissue from your wound. However, please avoid using this dressing when caring for moderate to heavily exudating wounds.

Alginates and Silicone Foam. These two dressings are very similar one to another in terms of usage as alginates contains seaweed component that is high in calcium. The reason these dressings are good for your wound that has high exudate because when calcium from the alginates dressing make contact with your wound, it is going to be exchanged with sodium from your wound fluid and this will turn this dressing into a gel that maintain moist in your wound and silicone foam also will help in absorbing large amount of exudate from your wound. However, these dressings will need to be changed daily and please restrain from using this type of dressing if your wound has low exudate as this will cause dryness and scabbing.

Collagen. This dressing usually available in forms of pads, gels or particles that promote deposit of newly formed collagen in the wound bed and also helps avoiding your skin from scabbing as it also will maintain a moist setting from your wound.

Despite the thorough knowledge available nowadays about wound and wound dressing, paramedics and expert believe that there is no single dressing is suitable for all types of wounds. Often, several types of dressing are used to help healing a single wound. Hence, we hope that the above explanations will helps you understand which dressings are most suitable for your wound or why the paramedics choose certain wound dressing to assess your wound.