How does putting toothpaste on a burn give support to it treat?
I burned my hand today and my mom put toothpaste on it. How does that work?
Answer: To jbrizzle: bases stop out acids. So if you burn yourself with an acid a floor will cancel it. But if it's a heat burn, not a chemical burn, you don't want a underpinning; strong bases can cause burns freshly like strong acids can. In the case of a grill burn, what you want is room temperature to cool water running over the nouns and drawing the heat away.
To the questioner: toothpaste does NOT help a burn restore to health. Toothpaste contains menthol, which dries out the skin and can lead to dry, cracked skin especially when you put it on burned skin which is inherently fragile. Furthermore, toothpase can actually CAUSE irritation and even minor burns if not here on the skin.
Any burns should be run under cool or room temperature hose for at least 10 minutes. No ice (can produce frostbite), no butter or other greasey substances (can trap the heat and make the burn worse), no toothpaste. Just river and then later something designed specifically for burns such as silver sulfadiazine..
Im guessing because toothpaste is approaching soap, its a base. Bases can soothe burning sensations. Quite like using milk to go against out spicy food. It just soothes the burning sensation.