Plasters

Which plaster for what

• Fabric plasters — move with the skin and stay put on fingers, knuckles and joints. The first choice where the hand is being used.
• Plastic plasters — the cheapest per unit and perfectly adequate in a dry environment, but they breathe less well and come off sooner with sweating.
• Waterproof plasters — stay on in the shower and when washing your hands. Change them when the edges lift; water that gets underneath and stays there does more harm than good.
• Blue plasters — used in food production because they are visible if they come off, and the detectable versions also have a metal strip that is picked up by the metal detector.
• Film dressings with a pad — transparent film with an absorbent pad: waterproof on the outside, breathable from the inside and able to withstand a shower. Suitable for sutured wounds and grazes.
• Tegaderm — thin, transparent film without a pad. The wound is visible without lifting the dressing, which is the point over puncture sites and small superficial wounds.
• Spray plasters — the film is applied without edges, useful where an ordinary plaster will not stick.

Always clean the wound first — a plaster on dirty skin sticks poorly and the wound heals less well. See wound cleansing.

For the workplace

A plaster dispenser on the wall is the difference between the plaster being used and somebody having to go looking for it. A blue dispenser and blue plasters in food environments, an ordinary dispenser in the workshop and the office.

Contact us or request a quote. See also first aid dressings and suture strips.