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Wet is good for secondary intention healing, new tissue can only grow in the wet, but it must be thoroughly disinfected and well covered…
This is interesting. I was concerned that wet would mean easily disturbed and this would slow healing. I guess that it’s going to be a case of keeping it wrapped up well enough, for long enough and not using the hand to ensure that it’s not getting disturbed.
Not sure if I should try and re-wet the one on the top of my thumb. It’s a bit worse looking which is why I haven’t I posted a pic of it yet 😬
M_V
Useful search terms for understanding wound healing are the difference between 'healing by primary intention' where the edges of a wound can close, and 'secondary intention' where there is loss of material so new tissue must form to close the wound. Burns usually the latter, which is much slower to heal, prone to infection and scarring. Fun.
IME YMMV IANAD, but based on numerous manual work hand injuries treated by doctors (sanding through a thumbnail, etc):
Plasters are shit, use non-adhering compresses drenched in disinfectant cream and bandages to secure them in place. You need an annoying amount of bandages for even quite small hand injuries because they fall off otherwise (e.g. for thumb might have to be secured around wrist). Even if you are just in a big bandage for 3-4 days, it will really help the healing of the thumb burn. After that you can decide to use smaller dressings on a cost-benefit analysis.
Wet is good for secondary intention healing, new tissue can only grow in the wet, but it must be thoroughly disinfected and well covered (I use iodine baths and then loads of iodine cream, but then I live in Germany). Change dressing every few days. If wounds have dried out, you can dress and cover and they will go soft again, which IME is good. Loose blisters, just disinfect and dress.
Any sensation of heat, pain, swelling, stiffness, redness, signs of infection = doctor
After a while you get a sense of what helps your healing, when is the right time to remove dressings and let things dry out a bit. Happy healing!
edit: just seen your photos... TLDR they look fine, next time maybe try keeping moist and disinfected for a day or two to get a shorter overall healing timeframe.