How to quickly draw out even deep splinters without a needle, pain, or trip to the doctor even if they have been embedded for some time. One minute video demonstration included.
A splinter is a fragment of any foreign object that penetrates and becomes lodged inside one’s body. While splinters can come from a variety of materials such as glass, plastic, metal or even the spines of animals, for most people, splinters commonly occur on the fingers and hands from handling some type of plant matter such as a piece of wood.
When one experiences a splinter, pain as the sharp object initially penetrates the skin is usually felt. This is because the object has cut through the cutaneous layer of skin, settling into the subcutaneous layer below. While some splinters stay put at that point, most others will continue to move around, damaging additional tissue in the process.
Splinters that become lodged in the fingers or hand as would happen while doing yard work are usually very easy to remove with a simple needle that has been properly cleaned with alcohol first.
The Problem with Removing Splinters with Needles
The problem with this approach is that children don’t like it as picking at a splinter with a pointy object can sometimes hurt until part of the splinter is exposed and the rest pulled out with a pair of tweezers or a piece of tape.
The second problem with the needle approach is that it doesn’t always work if the splinter is very deep or quite thin and hard to see.
This happened to my husband recently when he got a thorn that was about an inch long deeply lodged in his left index finger while doing some yard work.
No matter how hard he tried to dig that thorn out with the traditional needle approach, he could not even find it let alone remove it.
It was just too deep.
At first, he figured the splinter would naturally work its way out. Splinters sometimes do this – the skin “pushes” them to the surface of the skin where they are easily removed a short time later with tweezers or your fingers.
That didn’t happen with this splinter. Waiting a few days made the situation much worse as the finger got very sore and began to swell.
Going to a Doctor Instead is Expensive
I became very concerned at that point because the finger was obviously infected. I suggested a trip to the doctor, but my husband wasn’t keen on that idea as the (out of network) holistic family doctor we called said it would cost $500 for the office required consultation and subsequent removal of the splinter.
$500 to remove a splinter? Unbelievable!
My husband then had the bright idea to ask his friend who is a veterinarian about the situation.
How to Remove a Splinter at Home with No Needles
The veterinarian said that removing even a deep splinter is easy with magnesium sulfate, better known as Epsom salts. Many people are familiar with an Epsom salt bath for sore muscles or to improve sleep.
This remedy uses Epsom salt in another hugely beneficial way – to draw toxins even a splinter right out of the skin. (1)
The veterinarian said you could either soak the finger a few times a day in a cup of warm water and Epsom salts or make a poultice with it. The poultice is much faster and more effective, however.
Such a method is supported in the scientific literature and very safe as well. (2)
Epsom Salts – How to Draw Out a Splinter
My husband decided to go with the poultice route. He took a small pinch of Epsom salts, placed it on the bandage section of a regular, large band-aid and wrapped the finger with it. He changed the bandage once a day or after it got wet in the shower.
Another option is to put a bit of magnesium sulfate paste (which costs just a few dollars) on the area and cover with a bandage. Magnesium sulfate is the same thing as Epsom salt.
This one minute video demonstrates the easy process. Be sure to clean the area well and use established first aid methods before and after the splinter is out of the skin. (3)
How Long Does it Take?
Within 2 days, it was apparent that the Epsom salts poultice had worked! The end of that thorn was ever so slightly sticking through the skin!
My husband pulled about 1/3″ of thorn out, but he could tell there was still more in there.
He continued to apply the Epsom salts poultice for one more day which caused the rest of the thorn to come to the surface of the skin as well. He used tweezers to pull the rest of the thorn out, which turned out to be about another 1/2″ in length.
Best of all, the swelling and soreness of the finger quickly resolved with the removal of the thorn. It has been a couple of months since this happened and the finger is perfectly fine.
Keep Magnesium Sulfate on Hand
I will be using the Epsom salts or magnesium sulfate paste on a bandage approach to remove all splinters that occur in our household from now on. I’ve purchased a small bottle of the magnesium sulfate paste, and it is now a permanent part of my medicine cabinet.
This approach suggested by our veterinary friend is far easier than using needles or enduring the drama of a doctor’s visit and there is surprisingly no pain at all involved.
One word of caution. If you choose to use the crystals instead of the paste, be sure to buy Epsom salts that are human-grade, rather than agricultural grade.
References
(1) Magnesium Sulfate Paste
(2) Use of Epsom Salts, historically considered
(3) Foreign object in the skin: First aid
Would this work for a 2 month old tiny glass shard embedded into the bottom of your foot? I’d really appreciate some feed back. Thanks.
This works so well. I had a splinter go under my nail recently. I had no way to get to it. I had no epsom salt at home so the next day after work i grabbed some. I wet my finger and stuck it in the salt and then put a band aid on it. Less than two hours later i took the band aid off to reapply and the splinter was already working its way out! I was able to push it out. Amazing how fast and easy this worked!
For the doctor(s) in the group my question is this:
If you get a splinter and don’t yank it out right away and use this slow method or removing it over the course of 2-3-4 days, isn’t it likely to get infected and cause a more major problem? Isn’t it efficacious to get it out right away by digging it out with a sterilized needle or small sharp knife and then apply plenty of h2o2 and antibiotic salve?
Just asking, as I am only guessing.
I’m not a physician, but infections are widely misunderstood. The body has a mechanism for fighting infections, especially mild ones and the incidence of serious infections from foreign objects is rare, and there are numerous options to prevent them while waiting for the drawing agent to work.
Epsom salts will draw out infection also.
Also Icythimol ointment will draw things out. I once had a small glass shard in the bottom of my foot. it was completely embedded and I used soaking in Epsom slats and applied the icythimol ointment to the site. After a few days the glass almost came flying out the bottom of my foot. My Father, God Bless him taught me these things. always soak in hot water with Epsom salts for drawing out infection, and about the icythymol.
This was a rather silly and misleading article. In the amount of days it took to soak it out with the Epsom salts, the area would have festered naturally and started to expel the splinter anyhow.
Not silly or misleading at all. You obviously haven’t a clue as to how long a deep splinter can remain under the skin, or any foreign object for that matter. My sisters foot expelled a piece of glass from
at least five years earlier, so I’ll choose the certainty of a few days using a drawing agent over the uncertainty of the natural process.
That’s what I thought three weeks ago. The object in my foot has just now started working its way to the surface and that was only AFTER I had soaked myself in the bath a few times (just for relaxation… it wasn’t until after I got out of the bath and saw/felt major movement that I thought there might be a connection).
Yeah I’m a nurse and we just grab a scalpel and “explore” those suckers. Did one today in fact.
I am a doctor who takes care of the occasional splinter. I hate the expense to the patient. Glad when people take care of themselves. 4 years of med school and 5 years orthopedic residency is a little overqualified for splinter removal. Take care of yourself. Come to me when you can’t.
But surely people are coming to you BECAUSE they can’t take care of it themselves, or at least they don’t know they can? We’re constantly being told not to consult Dr. Google, and it’s not like people are spending a small fortune at the doctor’s office because they just can’t be bothered.
Sorry you feel overqualified but it is a medical issue, you’re the one with the medical knowledge, so where do you expect people to go?
epsom salt is awesome! My son was playing slip and slide at a neighors and got a 1″ headless nail go into his foot. We got it out and cleaned the wound soaked the foot and applied antibiotic and bandaid. the next day the foot looked awful. With no medical insurance or money we were freakin. my father in law fixed a small bucket with warm water and lots of epsome salt. had my 6 yr old sit on a small stool and soak his foot. after a few minutes my son is laughing like crazy as cousins are screaming gross. the epsom salt was drawing out so much of the infection the kids said he had spaghetti coming out of his foot. We changed the water and repeated …till it stopped draining. It completely healed in a few days. About 3 months later he complained of foot pain…and it was really pink so I took him to the dr. Xray showed that what we had removed was 1″ of a 3 ” headless nail. the rest was still in his foot and resting on the bone. He had surgery and all went well….
FYI the product you recommend contains parabans! Not healthy
“holistic family doctor ”
lost me right there.
and then wonder why it was expensive and wonder what happened to Health-Care in the U.S.
Most cities have clinics either in the hospital or off-site that would do this for less than a tenth of what was charged in the story, by a real doctor.
$500 Holistic doctor and complains about healthcare in America…how about complaining about your crazy nut job talk?
What JJ said.
I hope hubby doesn’t get tetanus or some other infection. Walking around with an unsterilized foreign object in your body for an extended period of time is just not smart.
Your experiment doesn’t have a “control”. How do you know that the splinter didn’t just need that much time to work itself out without the application of epsom salts.
Drawing agents have been around for much of human history, so the science is well-established and there’s no need for another study.
seriously what’s the matter with you all! “Your experiment doesn’t have a control……….”
Please! Why NOT apply Epsom salts. It clearly wasn’t going to work its way out! And you don’t get tetanus from a wood splinter anyway. So they should have sterilised the splinter before it went in? hahahaha. There are a million uses for Epsom Salts and this is just one of them.
Really some of the questions and responses here are just idiotic.
The OP wasn’t saying you should sterilize the splinter before it goes in… s/he was saying that if you get an object (which is unsterilized) in your body, get it out ASAP because the fact that it is unsterilized can cause an infection.
Actually, you have no idea if it would have worked its way out or not. There are people here talking about foreign objects working their way out over the course of five years, so there’s no reason to believe that it would’ve definitely stayed in permanently.
And honestly, there is nothing about epsom salt that screams “OF COURSE if I just put some epsom salt on this it will ‘draw’ the object out”. I’ve seen it work and I still don’t get how exactly. So to someone who has no experience with it, saying “why NOT apply Epsom salts” sounds about on par with “why NOT apply play-doh and pray to the goddess Kali”.