When to Use Liquid Dressings Instead of Patches
When I’m bored at the pharmacy, I buy useless things that I don’t need. This is how I finally discovered the liquid bandage, which it turns out I really need because it’s great for small cuts, blisters, and any cut on my arm. A liquid dressing replaces a conventional dressing with a layer of clear liquid applied directly to the wound.
There are several brands that use different chemicals and they come in spray or paint form. I use the Walgreens brand of paint, but like regular bandages, you’ll find your favorite.
Tiny cuts and insect bites
We used to recommend covering insect bites with tape or nail polish, or sealing cuts with superglue . The liquid dressing is simply an optimized version of this material with the addition of an antiseptic. Less likely to irritate the wound and is easier to apply. (The Mayo Clinic often uses skin glue instead of stitches because it’s faster and less painful.)
You can still see the wound through the liquid. So if you have a visible gross wound, you can cover it up with a band-aid.
Hand wounds
Most of us work with our hands all day, and regular bandages tend to come off. For finger wounds, we have to use fancy bandages on the knuckles and fingertips. But now that we all use touch screens, headbands are annoying. Most of them don’t work on your smartphone. They are also not suitable for regular typing.
The liquid bandage is small and unobtrusive (which makes it great for the face too) and it doesn’t make your finger invisible to touchscreens. This will ruin Touch ID, so activate the other fingertip and stop Touch ID through pain, Rambo.
Blisters
Like regular dressings, liquid dressings are helpful in treating and preventing blisters. (Andrew Weil mentions musicians who use superglue to protect their fingers from strings .) If all you need to do is reduce friction, but regular headbands keep coming off, spread this liquid dressing.
Like self-adhesive postage stamps and improved cereal box lids, liquid bandages are one of those tiny advances in technology that seem life-changing the first three times you use them, and then become part of life’s beige background noise. But for now, it makes me feel like a self-healing mutant. I’m cool as Wolverine, not a fool with a finger clicks.
This article was originally published in 2018 and updated on March 13, 2020 by Elizabeth Yuko. Updates include the following: Checked links for accuracy and updated formatting to reflect the current style.