The plaster is a real jack of all trades. It has long been impossible to imagine everyday medical life without it; whether it is to care for wounds and keep them protected, to get certain active ingredients into the body or to be able to treat muscle tension specifically with heat.
What is a band-aid?
A wound dressing (plaster) is used to cover minor wounds and absorb blood or wound secretions. When colloquially talking about a plaster, is usually meant a wound quick dressing. This is a wound dressing that is attached to the skin with adhesive tape. A quick wound dressing is used to cover small wounds and to absorb blood or wound secretions. In addition, the wound dressing protects the injured area from mechanical stress or bacteria that can penetrate the small opening in the skin and cause infections. The wound dressing of a plaster must be sterile, which means that it cannot transfer any germs that are still able to multiply, such as bacteria or viruses, to the wound. In addition, the material must be absorbent so that blood and wound secretions are retained and absorbed. The adhesive tape should have a particularly skin-friendly adhesive, which is easy to remove to prevent skin irritation.
Shapes, types and types
The best known and most widely used plaster is certainly the wound plaster. There are also plasters that are specifically for certain problems of the skin. For example, there are plasters which can be used for corns or calluses and which prepare the skin with the help of salicylic acid so that it is easier to remove the corn or callus later. There are also patches that work specifically against warts. Such patches contain an acid that etches away the wart. If you have blisters on your feet, there are special blister plasters, which due to their gel padding reduce pressure and friction pain when walking as well as keep the injured area clean. There are also plasters which, for example, deliver pain-relieving substances transdermally, i.e. through the skin. Such patches are particularly advantageous because the active ingredient enters the bloodstream directly through the skin, bypassing the digestive tract and greatly reducing potential side effects. In addition, the patch adhering to the skin ensures that the active ingredient is delivered evenly over several days. In addition to patches that deliver painkillers, there are also nicotine patches that help with smoking cessation. There are also heat patches for back pain, sore muscles or rheumatism, as well as herpes patches, which dry up fever blisters and prevent the virus from spreading. Prescription patches against motion sickness are available; these are stuck behind an ear before the start of the journey and help against nausea and vomiting. Hormone patches are also very commonly used by women. Most often, these serve as a substitute for the birth control pill, but can also be used for hormonal imbalances, such as those resulting from menopause.
Structure, function and mode of action
Plasters come in many different sizes, usually with widths ranging from 4 to 8cm and lengths from 2.5 to 50cm. There are plasters that simply require a protective film to be peeled off, while other plasters require the correct size to be cut first. The adhesive tape has a different structure depending on the intended use. Functional plasters may also contain a gel layer. In addition, the wound dressing must be absorbent and usually also contain antimicrobial agents to help prevent infections. Due to their structure, plasters easily protect the wound from invading pathogens as well as mechanical stress.
Medical and health benefits
Quick wound dressings, the combination of wound pad and adhesive strip, were first manufactured in the late 18th century and have continued to be developed ever since. Nowadays, new plasters usually contain antimicrobial substances that are designed to disinfect the wound and prevent infections from developing. Medically, quick wound dressings are very commonly used. Quick wound dressings are used for small wounds with weak bleeding. Nowadays, almost everyone has different types and sizes of bandages at home; you don’t have to be a doctor to benefit from the health benefits of wound dressings.It is important to note that the wound dressing should always be a little larger than the actual injury so that the adhesive strip does not stick to the wound. When applying the plaster, care should be taken not to touch the wound dressing so that it remains sterile. The application of a plaster is very simple; the protective foil must be removed and then the wound dressing placed on the wound before the adhesive strip is pressed onto the skin with as few folds as possible. When using functional plasters such as pain plasters, the doctor’s instructions should be followed, but the application to the skin works the same as with a normal wound plaster.
