How To Remove A Splinter

Removing a splinter is almost a 'Texas chainsaw massacre' effect for kids. They may look at you like they have seen a green eyed monster, if you go near them with a needle in hand to remove the splinter. Splinter removal needs extreme care if you don't want to hurt yourself. Splinters are of all shapes and sizes but the small ones causes the greatest grief because it is so hard to take them out. You should observe the splinter area. Even though there are many kind of splinter like glass, metal, plastic, wood splinters are the most common of the species. There are many methods to remove splinter. Read on to know the tips for removing a splinter

Baking soda can be useful for tiny splinters. You can make a paste out of baking soda. This paste can be prepared by adding ¼ teaspoon of baking soda into enough amount of water. You can apply this paste on the area where the splinter is there and cover it entirely with a bandage. After one night, you can remove the splinter, which should be sticking out of the skin. The area, which the baking soda paste covers, will get swollen. So, this method should not be used on sensitive areas or if the splinter is big.

This is one of the painless methods to remove splinter. You can purchase Ichthammol ointment for this method. You may get it at your local pharmacy. Just apply a small amount on the splinter and put a band-aid over the salve. After a day’s wait, you can take out the band aide. Then splinter will comes out with the band aide. The only drawback of this method is that the salve’s odor is a bit unpleasant.

This is a common method, which everybody first thinks of. You can remove the splinter using a pair of tweezers. A magnificent glass or a lens can help you see the spot where the splinter sticks in. You should observe the angle in which the splinter went in. After that, grip the tweezers on any part of the splinter and you can remove it by pulling it back. There is high possibility for the splinter to come easy because that was the same route it went in.

 

This method can be used for removing the big size splinters. You need a stickiest tape for trying this method. It can be the duct tape, masking tape or the scotch tape. You can paste the small ripped off piece of the tape on the splinter. The pasting should be gentle. Too much pressure may help the splinter to stay there in your body safe. Once the tape is firmly pasted on the splinter site, rip it off quickly to the opposite direction of the splinter went in. If you are lucky, splinter would come out at the first attempt. If you are not, you should keep trying until you get lucky.

 

This is an ancient method to remove a splinter. This method is favorable when there is a thin layer of skin involved with splinter. There is possibility for the skin to get healed over the splinter because of the delay in the removal. Just observe whether the splinter is deep or not. You shouldn’t use this method if the splinter is deeply fixed in your body. First of all you should sterilize the needle with alcohol. Use a magnifying glass to observe the spot in body where the splinter has stuck on. Then stick the needle gently into the skin. Just open the skin carefully by using the needle. For seeing the splinter clearly, just pull out the skin without giving much pressure to it. The process will not be much painful if you do it with care. You can use tweezers to pull it out. If you accidentally break up your skin, immediately use baking soda method to extract the splinter quickly.