It's no miracle, but it's pretty darn close
I bought this stuff after suffering some seriously bad road rash on the side of my face. My face was scraped up pretty badly, but there was nothing too deep. I did some research about speeding up the healing process,and finally settled on this stuff; I'm sure glad I did. This is how I applied it. I liberally applied it 3 times/day, in the morning, afternoon, and evening before bed. I did NOT bandage it up during the day (first 2 applications) because there were really no bandages to fit my face without covering my head like a mummy. At night, I put gauze on the wounds and taped them to my face as best I could, but they would sometimes fall off by morning. Now on to the results. One of the things you'll first notice about it is the numbing (that's the lidocaine). For my scrapes, with some as large as 1.5 inches in diameter, they were significantly less painful. By the time this stuff was delivered, scabs had already started to form, which cracked and were painful every time I moved my face (i.e., all the time). Even when a scab is already formed, this stuff will moisten the scab to prevent it from cracking. For the pain reduction alone for my particular injury, I'd recommend this stuff. However, on top of the pain reduction, it increased the healing speed. I'm honestly not sure how it work, and I am a perpetual skeptic when it comes to these claims (I come from a family of doctors), but it worked. I noticed significant improvement within just 3 days. My scabs had shrank or fallen off, the injuries were much less noticeable, and new skin had started to form. After a week, I felt like my face was at 3 weeks of natural healing. However, after that initial phase of healing, I don't think it helps that much. It's great when there are scabs forming and open wounds, but by the time you have that pink layer of new skin, you've probably received all the benefits you can from it. Also, it's really only for superficial abrasions. The one semi-deep cut I had on my face, which was only about 3/8 inch long, is still apparent, though it's probably down to less than 1/4 inch long 6 months later. Recently, I've used it when I had large, open blisters on my fingers from rock climbing. I applied some of this stuff and bandaged them up 3 times per day. Worked great again, and really sped up the healing process. I was even able to continue lifting weights because of the numbing power and the moistening effect (the blisters were on the palm-side of my fingers on the knuckle joint, so I had the problem of the scabs cracking open when moving them). This stuff is great and I highly recommend it to anyone experiencing superficial abrasions or minor cuts. Also, don't be fooled by its small size: I use it fairly frequently and I'm barely 1/2 through with my first (though certainly not last) tube. Read more