What Are the Types of Burns?
Burns are an injury that happens when something, usually something hot, damages the tissues of your body. They are more severe when they are deeper or cover a larger part of your body’s surface area.
Burns are common and most often unintentional. Worldwide, about ten million people every year experience burns, and around 180,000 die each year. In the United States, about 486,000 people need medical care for burns each year.
Different Types of Burns
There are five kinds of burns:
- Thermal burns (hot or cold)- These result in cell damage from extreme temperatures.
- Electrical burns- These happen when electrical energy overburdens your cells. Electricity generates heat and causes thermal damage.
- Friction burns- Something rubs against your body hard enough to generate heat. The excessive amount of force needed for these burns causes other types of damage as well.
- Radiation burns- When different forms of radiation damage your cells, the cells die.
- Chemical burns- These happen when chemicals, ones that are acidic or alkaline, try to react with your cells and destroy them.
Degrees of Burns
Medical professionals determine the severity of a burn partly by how deep it goes. Today, experts use the following system:
- Superficial (similar to first-degree)- The damage is to the epidermis, which is the top layer of skin. These are minor and self-treatable.
- Partial-thickness (similar to second-degree)- These go deeper, now damaging the outer two layers of your skin. They may blister, also causing color or texture changes more than simple redness, and will be painful.
- Full-thickness (similar to third-degree)- These burns go through all skin layers and will reach all the way to the fatty tissue underneath the dermis. These burns destroy nerve endings, so they do not hurt.
Burns may extend even deeper and damage muscles, nerves, bones, and other deep tissues. These are not common, and experts sometimes call these fourth-degree burns.
What are the Symptoms of Burns?
Common symptoms of burns include:
- Pain- Burns can hurt quite a lot, especially if they are in sensitive places such as your hands or face. And while full-thickness burns do not hurt, the area around them will.
- Skin appearance or texture changes- Superficial burns may cause peeling, while partial-thickness burns might cause blistering. Deeper, more severe burns will make your skin leathery and stiff.
- Skin color changes- Superficial burns might cause red skin, or red-tinged skin if your skin is naturally darker. Partial-thickness burns may make your skin blister. Full-thickness burns might char your skin black or make it look ashen and gray. Burned skin will also have an unusual color while it heals.
What Can Cause Burns?
Burns can happen in many ways, including:
- Touching something too hot or too cold, like a hot stove or dry ice.
- Contact with extremely hot air, like air from an open flame, or very cold air, like severe wind chill, that causes frostbite.
- Contact with extremely hot liquids, like boiling water, or very cold liquids, like liquid nitrogen.
- Electrical current is conducted through your body from things like downed power lines, damaged power cables, cords, lightning, and automobile batteries.
- Falling on a paved surface, which causes road rash.
- Moving against rougher fabrics, like in clothing, upholstery, carpets, with a lot of force or for an extended time.
- Sun exposure without adequate protection.
- Receiving medical treatments such as radiation therapy.
- Contact with certain chemicals, like those found in cleaning products or construction supplies.