What do we call a splinter? Any foreign body that has penetrated under the skin or nail. Most often this is a small wooden sliver, a spine of a plant, however, plastic, metal splinters can also be found. An interesting fact is that splinters of organic nature contribute to the development of infection in the wound, while inorganic ones do not. However, it is worth retrieving them anyway! The procedure seems especially complicated and painful if the foreign body is stuck under the nail plate. In some cases, you just can not do without qualified medical care. We will tell you how to get a splinter from under the nail yourself. We list simple methods.
How to get a splinter from under the nail: the most effective way
If you decide to remove the foreign body yourself, it is better not to try to do this with your fingers and nails. It’s much easier, faster and more efficient to use ordinary tweezers.
How to get a splinter from under the nail:
- Before carrying out the procedure, be sure to wash your hands with soap!
- Sterilize the tool - you can use both cool boiling water and an alcohol-containing product for this.
- In addition, wash the area around the splinter with soap and water. Disinfect the area with an alcohol-based product.
- If the damaged nail is long, then trim it with scissors - this will significantly facilitate the procedure for removing the splinter from under the nail plate.
- Place your damaged finger under the light fixture or sit in a bright room - you should clearly see the splinter.
- Gently hold the protruding edge with tweezers.
- Pull out the foreign body in the direction in which it entered under the nail.
If, when trying to remove the splinter, it broke off (part of it remained under the nail), split, then this is an occasion to contact a specialist.
Needle removal
It is not always possible to pick up a foreign body with tweezers. How to get a splinter from under the nail, if it is deep? Use a regular sewing needle:
- Wash your hands with soap.
- Sterilize the needle with boiling water or alcohol.
- Rinse and disinfect the damaged finger.
- Settle down for the procedure in a well-lit area.
- Carefully bring the tip of the needle under the nail in the direction of the splinter.
- Once you have reached the near edge of the foreign body, your task is to carefully pick it up with a needle and move it closer to the outer edge of the nail plate.
- Bring the splinter with a needle to the distance from which it can be removed with tweezers.
- Disinfect the tweezers and remove the splinter.
Baking Soda Extract
A splinter got under the nail - how to get it? If the foreign object is too small to hook with a needle, tweezers, or has gone too far under the nail plate, try this simple method:
- Stir one tablespoon of ordinary baking soda in warm boiled water.
- Soak a damaged finger in such a bath twice a day.
- Procedures should be repeated periodically for several days. As a result, the splinter should go to the surface of the skin, from where it will simply be removed with the same tweezers. In some cases, it falls out by itself.
There is another way where baking soda is involved. Then paste is made from powder:
- Shorten a damaged nail to provide access to a foreign body.
- Dilute a quarter of a tablespoon of baking soda with a few drops of boiled or drinking water so that you have a thick paste, paste.
- Apply the product to the damaged area, and wrap the finger over the top with a sterilized bandage.
- After a day, remove the bandage, inspect the damaged area.
- Under the influence of the paste, the splinter most often comes out by itself. If this does not happen, then similarly prepare a new portion of the product. Tie your finger again for 24 hours.
Extraction using tape
How to get a splinter from under the nail of a child? It is necessary to do this unusually and quickly so that the little patient does not have time to be afraid and does not prevent the adult from performing the procedure. However, this method is good for small splinters, whose edge protrudes above the surface of the skin:
- Shorten the baby’s fingernail to provide access to the foreign body.
- Take a transparent adhesive tape - a splinter will be clearly visible under it.
- Press the adhesive tape against the foreign body.
- Pull it sharply on yourself - a glued splinter as a result of this action will break out from under the nail.
Depilatory wax extraction
Another unusual way that will help to remove small splinters from under the nail plate that are difficult to grab with a needle or tweezers:
- Shorten the nail near the damaged area to make the procedure easier.
- Heat the wax, then apply it to the damaged area - the substance must necessarily cover the protruding edge of the splinter.
- Apply a thin strip of cloth or bandage to wax that has not yet set.
- As soon as the substance hardens, pull the edge of the glued fabric strip. Along with the wax, the splinter adhered to it should also move away.
Extraction using Vishnevsky
How to get a splinter from under the nail, if it is deep? Vishnevsky ointment here is the simplest painless way. It is used, in particular, for small patients. The procedure is as follows:
- Shorten the damaged nail.
- Apply a little ointment directly to the area where the splinter penetrated.
- Wrap the damaged finger carefully with a bandage - the ointment emits an unpleasant odor, leaves stains on clothes, bedding.
- After 24 hours, remove the bandage - the splinter under the action of Vishnevsky’s agent should come to the surface itself.
- If the foreign body remains under the nail, repeat the procedure again - a daily dressing with Vishnevsky ointment.
- If the splinter does not come out completely, but its edge appears above the surface of the skin, then carefully pull it out with sterilized tweezers.
Popular methods for the extraction of splinter
Before using any of the following methods, we advise you to pre-wash the wound with soap and disinfect it with an alcohol-containing preparation:
- Compress from comfrey or fenugreek root. The ingredient ground to a powder state is poured with boiling water. The resulting mass is applied to the damaged area - the dressing is changed every 4 hours.
- Onion gruel. Grind the product on a grater, attach the pulp to the wound. Change the compress to fresh every 3 hours.
- White cabbage. The cabbage leaf is grated into a slurry. The latter is applied to the wound. Every 3 hours, this compress should be changed to fresh.
- Processing the wound with vodka, juniper resin, tar also helps to soften the skin around the splinter, which contributes to the independent exit of a foreign body.
- For the same purpose, warm baths are made from baby soap (5 tablespoons of shavings from a soap bar). The damaged finger is kept in water until it cools. Continue the procedure until the splinter.
After extraction
You know how to get a splinter out of your finger. Once you have succeeded, be sure to do the following:
- Wash the wound with soap from which the foreign body was taken out.
- To prevent infection from getting into it, treat the area with iodine, brilliant green or an antibiotic ointment.
- When extraction began bleeding? Need treatment with hydrogen peroxide. After the blood stops, disinfect the wound and bandage your finger with a sterile bandage.
Need medical help!
How to get a splinter from under the nail? Sometimes this problem can only be solved by a specialist. These are cases when a foreign body has gone too deep under the nail plate, and an infection has been brought along with it. This can be determined by several signs:
- A splinter causes heavy bleeding.
- You cannot get to a foreign body on your own (you already know how to get a splinter from under the nail). Here you will need a local anesthetic, which will help to remove the splinter painlessly.
- The area around the foreign body is swollen, reddened, you feel pain when touched, pressed. Most likely, the infection is brought. You will be prescribed antibiotics to rule out the development of serious consequences.
You now know ways that will help to remove a splinter on your own - both small and deep inside the skin, both for an adult and a child.