Emergency Uses

#75 · Scratch an itch inside a cast

The most underrated use on this entire list. Slide it carefully inside a plaster cast for blessed, blissful relief.

Anyone who has worn a plaster cast knows the itch is a genuinely unreasonable form of suffering. The chopstick down the cast is the classic folk remedy, and also the one every fracture clinic in the country will tell you not to do.

It's worth knowing why they say that rather than just being told. Skin under a cast is soft, damp and often already fragile. You cannot see what you're doing, you cannot feel how hard you're pressing, and a graze you can't inspect, in a warm sealed environment, is close to ideal conditions for infection. Cast-related skin infections are a routine reason for casts being removed early.

Why it works

The itch is mostly trapped moisture and dead skin with nowhere to go, plus nerve irritation from the injury itself. Scratching treats none of that, which is why the alternatives below work better and are the ones clinicians actually suggest.

Variations worth trying

• Cool air from a hairdryer on the cold setting, blown down the open end, is the standard clinic recommendation and works remarkably well.
• An ice pack held against the outside of the cast over the itchy spot numbs it through the plaster.
• Antihistamines help if the itch is keeping you awake - worth asking a pharmacist.
• Tapping firmly on the outside of the cast scratches the itch neurologically without anything going in.