The best thing to put on a fresh burn is cool running water for 20 minutes. After that, plain petroleum jelly or aloe vera gel, covered with a non-stick bandage, will protect the wound and speed healing. Skip the butter, toothpaste, and ice you may have heard about, as these can make things worse.
Cool Water First, Everything Else Second
Before you put anything on a burn, you need to cool it. Run cool water (around 15°C or 59°F) over the burned area for a full 20 minutes. This stops the burning process from continuing deeper into your skin even after the heat source is gone. The 20-minute threshold matters: shorter cooling is less effective at limiting tissue damage.
Start cooling within three hours of the injury for the best results, but sooner is always better. While the water runs, gently remove any clothing or jewelry near the burn before swelling starts. Don’t use ice or ice water. Ice constricts blood vessels and can cause frostbite on already damaged skin, and in larger burns, it raises the risk of hypothermia.
What to Apply After Cooling
Once you’ve cooled the burn for 20 minutes, pat the area dry gently and apply a thin layer of plain petroleum jelly (like Vaseline or Aquaphor). This keeps the wound moist, which is essential for healing. Skin that dries out heals more slowly and scars more easily.
Over-the-counter antibiotic ointments like Neosporin or Bacitracin are also fine to use if you’re not allergic to them, but they aren’t necessarily better. A study comparing petroleum jelly to antibiotic ointments found no significant difference in wound infection rates. Petroleum jelly is cheaper, widely available, and carries no risk of an allergic skin reaction, which makes it a solid default choice.
Aloe vera gel is another effective option. Research on burn patients has consistently shown that aloe vera speeds healing compared to standard wound care. In one study, second-degree burns treated with aloe vera showed about 91% improvement within 10 days, compared to roughly 29% with a standard medical cream. Across multiple clinical trials, aloe vera reduced healing time for first- and second-degree burns to around 9 days. The gel contains compounds that help skin retain moisture, reduce redness, and promote cell regeneration. If you’re using a store-bought aloe gel, look for one with a high aloe concentration and minimal added fragrances or alcohol.
How to Bandage a Burn
After applying petroleum jelly or aloe vera, cover the burn with a non-stick bandage or dressing. Standard gauze can stick to a healing burn and rip away new skin when you change it, which is painful and sets back recovery. Non-adherent dressings, sometimes labeled as “non-stick pads,” are available at most pharmacies. Hydrogel dressings are another option: they keep the wound moist, feel cool against the skin, and can sometimes be transparent enough to monitor healing without removing them.
Change the dressing once a day or whenever it gets wet or dirty. Each time, gently clean the area with mild soap and water, reapply your petroleum jelly or aloe vera, and put on a fresh bandage.
What Not to Put on a Burn
Several popular home remedies actually make burns worse. Toothpaste is one of the most common mistakes. In one large survey, over 53% of people said they would apply toothpaste to a burn. Toothpaste contains chemicals that can irritate damaged tissue, trap heat in the skin, and create conditions that favor infection.
Butter and cooking oils are equally harmful. They seal heat into the wound, deepen the injury, and introduce bacteria. Eggs, mud, and soap have the same problems. At best these do nothing; at worst they aggravate the burn and significantly raise infection risk. Stick to cool water, then petroleum jelly or aloe vera.
Leave Blisters Alone
If your burn forms a blister, resist the urge to pop it. That intact blister is a natural sterile bandage protecting the raw skin underneath. One controlled trial found that burns with blisters left intact had an infection rate of 15%, while burns where blisters were drained or removed had infection rates of 73% to 78%. Popping blisters also increases pain. If a blister breaks on its own, gently clean the area, apply petroleum jelly, and cover it with a non-stick bandage.
Managing Burn Pain
Minor burns can hurt intensely for the first few hours and remain tender for days. Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen both work well for burn pain. Ibuprofen has the added benefit of reducing inflammation, which can help with swelling around the burn. Acetaminophen is a good alternative if you can’t take anti-inflammatory medications. Follow the dosing instructions on the package and be careful not to exceed the maximum daily amount, especially with acetaminophen, which can stress the liver at high doses.
Keeping the burn covered and moist also reduces pain. Exposed burns hurt more because air movement across raw nerve endings triggers stinging. A good dressing acts as a buffer.
Burns That Need Medical Attention
Not every burn can be managed at home. Get emergency care if the burn is larger than about 3 inches (8 centimeters) across, if the skin looks white, brown, black, or charred, or if the skin feels dry and leathery rather than moist and blistered. These signs point to a deep burn that has damaged all layers of skin.
Location also matters. Burns on the hands, feet, face, neck, groin, genitals, or over a major joint need professional treatment even if they seem small, because scarring in these areas can limit movement or cause complications. Any burn that wraps all the way around an arm or leg is also an emergency, since swelling can cut off circulation.
Watch for Signs of Infection
Even a minor burn can become infected if bacteria get into the wound. Over the following days, watch for increasing redness spreading outward from the burn, growing pain rather than gradually decreasing pain, warmth or swelling that gets worse, pus or cloudy drainage, and fever. Any of these signs mean the burn needs medical evaluation.
Burns are also classified as dirty wounds for tetanus purposes. If you haven’t had a tetanus booster in the last five years, or if you’re unsure of your vaccination history, it’s worth checking with a healthcare provider about whether you need one. The CDC recommends a tetanus booster for burn injuries when more than five years have passed since the last shot.