Burn Care Aftercare Instructions
A day-by-day recovery guide for burn care: what to expect, how to care for yourself, and when to call. Free to read and print.
What to expect
What to Expect
- •Recovery depends on the burn depth, location, treatment, and your overall health
- •Color, sensitivity, movement, and scarring can continue to change over time
- •Use the timeline from your burn care team rather than comparing your recovery with someone else's
Burn Care recovery, day by day
Protect Your Dressing
- Keep any dressing, bandage, or splint clean and dry. Change or remove it only on the schedule your burn care team gave you
- Wash and dry your hands before touching the area or handling wound-care supplies
- Use only the medicines and wound products approved for this burn. Do not add creams, ointments, or home remedies unless your burn care team says they are safe
Protect the Area
- Rest and elevate the treated area only if your care team instructed you to do so
- Do not apply ice to a burn or healing graft
- Use cooling or a cool pack only when your care team has approved it and explained how to protect the skin
Wound and Dressing Care
- Keep dressings clean and dry and change them only on the schedule your care team provided
- Do not peel tape, graft dressings, or healing skin
- Shower, wash the area, soak, or swim only when your care team says it is safe
Movement
- Take short walks or do prescribed stretches if you were cleared to do so
- Avoid strenuous activity, heavy lifting, and anything that strains the treated area until your care team clears you
- Contact your care team if swelling, pain, tightness, or movement becomes worse instead of better
Healing Skin
- Protect healing skin from rubbing and direct sun
- Use moisturizer, silicone, or massage only after your care team confirms the skin is ready and gives you a schedule
- Continue prescribed stretching or therapy to protect movement and flexibility
Follow-Up
- Attend each scheduled wound, graft, scar, or movement check
- Ask your care team when work, school, exercise, and other normal activities are safe for you
- Bring up pain, itching, tightness, limited movement, or skin changes that are not improving as expected
When to call your provider or 911
- •Call 911 now for trouble breathing, chest pain, fainting, confusion, or swelling of the face or throat
- •Call your burn care team promptly for fever or chills, spreading redness or warmth, new drainage or odor, or pain that is worsening
- •Call your burn care team for a dressing that is soaked, displaced, or too tight, or for new numbness, color change, or loss of movement
When in doubt, call your clinic. For a medical emergency, call 911.
Recovery milestones
- Day 14
Healing Progress Check
Review the wound, dressing plan, pain, drainage, and movement with your burn care team. Keep following their dressing instructions.
- Day 60
Ongoing Recovery Review
Review any ongoing pain, itching, tightness, movement limits, or skin changes with your burn care team. Continue skin and scar care only as directed.
For clinics
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