How a Band Aid Might Change Your Life

Sounding a bit melodramatic, am I? To say that a band aid changed my life?  Well, it did. It actually did!

Here's my story:  Almost a year ago, I suffered a large injury to the bottom of my foot. I was in New York City at the time and had to hail a cab to rush to the nearest urgent care. I will not elaborate on the injury details, but suffice to say, it was not pretty, the cab driver was horrified and it was quite painful.  It certainly put a damper on the rest of my time in the city with my family as well as the days that followed at home.

I received great care from the doctor in New York City, but when I got back home a few days later, my wound, and it was a large one, was healing slowly. It required a good amount of daily home care and the pain was getting worse.  I decided to see my own general practitioner to check on my progress. There, I was introduced to hydrocolloid dressings. This bandage, this dressing, this way of covering a wound, it changed my life, at least for the next few weeks anyway. Here is why:

Better Band Aids, Better Healing with No Scarring

Stocking up your first aid kit at the drugstore offers boxes upon boxes of band aid choices. Bandages are not so simple anymore. And, that is a good thing apparently as research proves there are better ways to cover that boo-boo and make it better, heal faster, and create a lot less scarring and other complications.

Some bandages help create a better environment for your wound healing. Here are some reasons to consider using hydrocolloid dressings to heal your next wound:

Your wound will heal much faster and better.  Hydrocolloid dressings create an environment that allows skin to form new skin cells where they do it best - in a moist climate. The principle of moist wound therapy is to create and maintain optimal conditions for your skin to heal faster and better with less chance of infection.  If you keep your wound covered with a hydrocolloid dressing, your skin cells will divide and migrate at an increased rate accelerating wound healing.

I watched it happen with my foot and it was fascinating.  Once I switched to that new dressing, it got so much better, so much faster.  I was up and around much quicker than the original doctor had predicted.



No scabbing and much less scarring.  In a moist wound healing environment, there is no scabbing. Wounds that are left uncovered or get air through other dressings will always create a scab making it harder for it to close and perhaps then creating a scar. That large foot injury I suffered? No scab, no scar. no evidence it ever happened!

They don't cramp your style.  Go ahead. Move about! If your wound is located on joints such as knees or elbows, there is no scab to disturb when bending your joint. Plus, showering and bathing is no problem. The bandages are waterproof and stay on during all of that and do not require you to change the dressing after bathing.

Changing your bandage is a breeze!  Moist wound healing ensures that removing or changing your bandage remains painless as the bandage does not adhere to the wound.

This was one of my favorite parts of the hydrocolloid dressing.  Before I had this type of bandage, I was required to change the dressing on my foot several times a day, and it was inconvenient, painful, kinda gross and I felt like it was disturbing the healing process.  It also took a lot of time as well. Changing this bandage did not hurt at all and I only had to do it every five days!

You save money. Hydrocolloid bandages are more expensive up front, but in the long run because you do not change them often, they save money and time at the drugstore. Plus, those doctor visits should be non existent due to the better healing.

You save time.  With these type of bandages, all that time attending to changing the dressing is eliminated. In fact, you are only required to change it every few days or even up to a once a week.  I kept re-reading those instructions as I could not believe that part, but it is true!

Your skin will thank you.  I am one of those sensitive to surgical tape and band aid adhesive.  Before I switched to the hydrocolloid dressings, changing my bandage so frequently was really aggravating the surrounding skin on my foot.  But, the hydrocolloid dressings use skin-friendly, hypoallergenic-type materials that are thin, flexible, and breathable that stretch with your skin.


So, no overly dramatic statements here. That band aid was a life changer for me. Once I changed bandages to the hydrocolloid dressings, I began to heal much faster and get on with my busy life! I spent little time taking care of it and there was no scarring, less pain and no secondary infection. Thus, for me, there is no better choice for injuries like the one I had. Sure, I keep regular, old-fashioned band aids for the occasional paper cut, but these hydrocolloid bandages have a permanent home in my first aid kit at my house.

I really think you should introduce yourself to them, too, but always check with your doctor to ensure this bandage is appropriate for your particular injury. I used this brand and purchased them at Walgreens. But, there are other brands using the same concept.  Still curious? Click here for more information on this type of bandage and its appropriate use.


Have you tried this bandage before? If so, what did you think? What brand did you use? Please tell us in the comments.

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mag3737/262200284/">mag3737</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
dollar: photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5929472943/">Images_of_Money</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>

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