Newbie Taping Mouth Shut

I haven't experimented with Tegaderm yet....but, what if you fab some lightweight "handles" for the ends....out of thin card stock....about the width of a popsicle stick and 2" long.

Do a couple of wraps around the card stock with the Tegaderm....and you've got instant "handles" for removal in the morning.

G

Gerald wrote:I haven't experimented with Tegaderm yet....but, what if you fab some lightweight "handles" for the ends....out of thin card stock....about the width of a popsicle stick and 2" long.

Do a couple of wraps around the card stock with the Tegaderm....and you've got instant "handles" for removal in the morning.

G

Good thought, but the Tegaderm is sooooo extremely thin, it's easier and quicker to just slap a piece of the painter's tape on top. The painter's tape sticks well to the back of the Tegaderm.

This kind of stuff absolutely stays stuck firmly all night no matter how much drool or skin oil or mouth movement. Will take skin with it unless you're very careful removing it. That's why I like to put a piece of the painter's tape over it for easier "roll back on itself" in the morning.

Width doesn't matter with a roll of any brand of transparent film (as long as it's at least two inches wide) since you can cut it whatever length you want and turn the piece whichever way you want to apply it.

The links below are just places to see what I use.
There are plenty of places on the internet to shop for cheapest price of "transparent film roll" wound dressing.
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3M™ Tegaderm™ Transparent Film Roll 16002

2 inch x 11 yd (5cm x 10m) Transparent Film Roll

Catalog Number: 16002
NDC/NHRIC: 8333-1600-20

Three widths of "roll" are shown at bottom of page:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... 85P3RT67gl


I also have another brand's roll that works equally well:

Smith & Nephew "OPSITE FLEXIFIX"

4 inch x 10.9 yards (10cm x 10m)

http://global.smith-nephew.com/us/OPSIT ... L_8203.htm

I am very familiar with Tegaderm and that is not something I would be comfortable using over my mouth. That's an air-tight seal and like RG said, it's very tough to get it up. That would be a last resort, in my opinion, after other tapes had failed.

SleepingUgly wrote:like RG said, it's very tough to get it up.

Exactly. The first couple of times (several years ago) that I used Tegaderm by itself, it was so nearly impossible to pick at an edge to start removal, I used a pencil to poke a hole between my lips in the morning so I could get hold of the film. I kept several pencils at hand on the nightstand, just in case I ever needed to punch an emergency hole in the Tegaderm. Finger can do it, but takes a LOT of push to get through that deceptively tough thin film.

Those were not pleasant removals, trying to pull the film up and off in all directions from a center hole no matter how slowly and carefully I did it. The skin irritation those removals caused are what made me give up on Tegaderm "back then."

Now that I've found adding painter's tape on top brings all the Tegaderm right along with it, removal is quite easy. And the press-down-hard-while-rolling-tape-backwards method that I use for removing any tape, keeps the skin around my mouth intact.