Is it a first, second, or third-degree burn? How to tell at home.
A superficial burn is red, dry, and painful; a deeper one blisters, weeps, and is very painful; the deepest looks white, leathery, or charred and may feel numb. Anything beyond a small superficial burn deserves medical assessment.
You do not need to diagnose a burn perfectly to treat it well, the first aid is the same for all of them, cool with water. But being able to read depth roughly tells you whether this is a home matter or a hospital one. The key signals are colour, whether it blisters, and, importantly, pain. A burn that feels numb is often deeper, not better.
Do this, in order
Look at the colour
Red and dry suggests superficial. Mottled, weeping, or blistered suggests deeper. White, brown, or black suggests deepest.
Check for blisters
Blistering points to a deeper, partial-thickness burn.
Judge the pain, carefully
Very painful is common in superficial and mid-depth burns. Numbness can mean the nerves are damaged, which is more serious, not less.
Measure against the palm
Roughly, the person's whole palm including the fingers is about one percent of their body. Larger areas need help.
What helps
- Cool every burn with water regardless of depth
- Treat numbness as a sign of a deeper burn
- Use the palm as a rough size guide
- Get deeper or larger burns assessed
What harms
- Assume a numb burn is a mild one
- Judge severity by size alone
- Delay care while debating the degree
- Burst blisters to 'see how deep it is'
This guidance reflects current burn-care research and major clinical guidelines.
Source: Mayo Clinic, Burns: first aid
For the superficial and small partial-thickness burns suited to home care, BurnFrost cools and covers after the water step. Deeper burns belong with a clinician, not a dressing.
BurnFrost →- A burn looks white, leathery, brown, or charred
- An area feels numb rather than painful
- The burn is larger than a palm, or encircles a limb
- It is on the face, hands, feet, joints, or genitals