[aspenmayer]

That explains why they use oxygen tents, but it doesn’t really explain why oils/fats on burns provide pain relief. The little I was able to determine was that the exposed inflamed dermis is extremely sensitive to touch/pressure even of just air or air currents, but I don’t know why this is the case.

[lukan]

Some oil has cooling properties. I suppose that is what can provide relief. With my second degree burns this year, I surely enjoyed cooling it, but with ice water.

[aspenmayer]

Ice water would also block air exposure, wouldn’t it?

I’ve also had some larger burns and immersed them in ice water for the immediate treatment, but after the first day or so, I found that petroleum jelly based topical ointments were easier to apply and maintain, as the burn was on the bottom of my foot, which was a distinctly horrible place to have a burn.

[lukan]

My burns were on the hands, which is not so nice either.

But air exposure was happening most of the time, the way I cooled my burns, so it definitely was the cooling, that did help in my case.

(A wet towel with ice in it)

And I learned to not mess with the wounds at all. I think the last time I had a burn, I opened the the blister to get the fluid pressure out. Bad idea, this time I left it and it healed way faster. It healed so good, that after my first night of pain and cooling, I did not had to do anything with it, except giving it a rest.

[aspenmayer]

Ouch, I bet that hurt! I think hands have some of the highest concentrations of nerve endings. The feet were pretty rough, and the callous constricted the blister and limited the expansion of the skin, so lancing the blister was necessary to prevent injury from the blister popping and the blister skin not covering the wound properly.

I stepped on flaming plastic barefoot and fortunately was able to almost immediately immerse the foot in water, which caused the plastic to fuse to my foot for a few hours until the ice water was able to reduce the swelling. Then my foot shrank away from the mostly rigid plastic mass. It was a pretty horrible experience all around considering the small surface area of the burn, and part of the reason why I don’t like walking around barefoot generally, if I had to guess, as it happened when I was around 5 years old. My folks would later be volunteer firefighters and first responders, and I learned a lot of field first aid skills by proxy and through my own shenanigans. I’m glad I’ve never needed to be hospitalized for serious injury, though apparently not for lack of trying.

[lukan]

That sounds painful as well..