Skin Tears on Thin Skin: Why Silicone Dressings Help and Sticky Tape Hurts

Skin gets thinner and more fragile with age, especially on the forearms, hands and shins. A knock against furniture, a pet’s claw or pulling off a bandage can peel the top layer away. Skin tears are among the most common types of skin breakdown in older adults,¹ and they’re often misjudged or not reported.²

What a skin tear looks like

Experts sort skin tears into three types depending on how much skin is lost, and many tears leave a flap of skin that’s still partly attached.² If there’s a flap, don’t pull it off. Ask a nurse or clinician how best to lay it back in place.

What the dressing study found

Researchers in two Canadian long-term care homes randomly assigned 126 residents with skin tears to soft silicone dressings or to standard nonstick dressings.¹

• After 3 weeks, 97% of tears had healed with silicone dressings, compared with 34% with standard dressings.¹
• Tears healed in about 11 days with silicone versus 22 days without.¹

Skin tears usually heal within 7 to 21 days with good care.¹ Wound experts recommend dressings that keep moisture balanced and protect the fragile skin around the wound.¹

Everyday steps

• Avoid sticky tape directly on thin skin. Silicone-based tapes and dressings are gentler to remove.
• Moisturize daily, especially arms and legs.
• Pad sharp corners and wear long sleeves or protective socks if you bump often.
• Ask about your medicines. Long-term steroids and blood thinners can make skin more fragile or bruise easily. Our article on easy bruising explains more.

When to get help

Have it checked if the tear is large or deep, keeps bleeding, shows signs of infection, or isn’t healing within a few weeks. Our guides to dry, itchy skin and varicose eczema cover related skin care.

Questions to ask

1. What dressing should I use, and how often should I change it?
2. Should the flap be repositioned?
3. Are any of my medicines thinning my skin?

Try: “I tore the skin on my forearm on a cupboard door. What dressing should I use, and how do I keep it from happening again?”

Skin, Head to Toe includes a short-shelf planner and a 12-week SkinLog. Use them to note where and how tears happen and how each one heals. See the book.