Treatment for a bad sunburn

Move out of the sun, cool the skin with water or damp cloths, drink fluids, and use a bland moisturiser. Extensive blistering, severe pain, dehydration symptoms, or illness beyond the skin calls for clinical care.

Once ultraviolet injury has occurred, treatment cannot erase it. Care instead limits discomfort and secondary damage while the skin barrier repairs itself. Redness, heat, tenderness, swelling, blisters, and later peeling reflect different depths and phases of the inflammatory response.

A severe burn can also coincide with dehydration or heat illness. That is why treatment decisions depend on general symptoms and the amount and location of skin involved, not simply how red the surface appears.

Start with a cool shower, bath, or clean wet cloth, avoiding direct ice. Pat rather than rub. Apply fragrance-free moisturiser to intact skin, wear loose clothing, leave blisters unbroken, and stay away from additional ultraviolet exposure.

Drink fluids and monitor urine output and dizziness. A pharmacist can help select pain relief that fits your age, medicines, allergies, pregnancy status, and kidney or stomach history. Do not apply topical corticosteroids, antibiotics, or numbing products unless a clinician recommends them for your specific skin findings.

Seek prompt assessment for widespread blistering, burns over a large body area, severe or escalating pain, marked swelling, eye involvement, or burns affecting especially sensitive skin. Fever, fainting, confusion, repeated vomiting, pronounced weakness, or inability to drink requires urgent attention.

Broken blisters need review if surrounding redness expands, warmth and pain increase, or drainage becomes cloudy or foul-smelling. Clinicians may assess hydration, clean and dress damaged areas, manage pain, and treat infection when signs support it.

Ask how to dress open areas, which cleanser and moisturiser to use, whether your symptoms suggest heat illness, and when normal skin products can resume. Clarify whether any prescribed cream belongs on intact, inflamed, or broken skin, because those instructions can differ.