Medical Boil Treatment

If you have a boil, you’re probably experiencing a lot of discomfort and pain. But don’t worry, there are a number of treatments you can use to get rid of the symptoms of skin boils and carbuncles. If the boil appears on your face, spine, or rectum, or is very large in size, it’s a good idea to head straight to your doctor. She or he can provide you with relief from the symptoms of boils, prevent further complications (scarring of your skin), and eliminate the self-consciousness that sometimes rises with boils.

Seeing Your Doctor

Your doctor can drain the pus - a mixture of white cells, dead cells, and bacteria - in your boil by lancing it. Prior to lancing your doctor will numb the area around the boil. Then she or he will use a sterile lancet to make a tiny incision into the head of the boil, before covering the wound with gauze and inserting a wick to allow it to further drain. Afterwards, you will need to keep the wound and the skin around it clean by regularly changing the dressings. To help with this, you doctor most likely will recommend that you wash the area daily with antiseptic soap after rinsing the wound in the shower. Keep in mind that you should never try to lance a boil yourself because you might spread the infection and cause the boil to reoccur.

Self Treatment

You can also try to heal your boil at home if you don’t have severe symptoms or it’s not large in size or worrying you enough that you should visit a doctor. There are number of home remedies that you can use to help the boil resolve on its own. However, if you’re not into herbal mixtures and tree oil extracts, you can simply apply heat to the boil. Heat is the best treatment for boils, because it will help the boil form a head, soft pus-filled centre, and the boil will spontaneously drain itself.

Heat can be applied to the boil either by placing a washcloth soaked in hot water to your boil or by taking a warm bath with Epsom salts or washing the boil with warm water and antibacterial soap.

If you use a washcloth, apply it to the affected area for twenty minutes, and repeat this three times daily. If you’re taking a warm bath, be aware of the risk of spreading the infection if the boil drains in the bath water.