What is the medical definition for ointment?
What is the medical definition for ointment?
Medical Definition of ointment : a salve or unguent for application to the skin specifically : a semisolid medicinal preparation usually having a base of fatty or greasy material.
What is this word ointment?
Ointment is an oily kind of cream that you use to soothe or heal your skin. The Old French oignement came from the Latin unguentum, from the stem unguere, “to anoint or salve.”
What do you use ointment for?
Ointments, which include medicines, moisturizers, or cosmetics, can be applied to the eyes, skin, and mucus membranes to help treat anything from dry skin to cuts, scrapes, burns, bites, and hemorrhoids.
Why is it called ointment?
ointment (n.) “unctuous medicinal salve for external application,” late 13c., oynement, from Old French oignement “ointment, salve, unguent,” from Vulgar Latin *unguimentum, from Latin unguentum (see unguent). The first -t- emerged early 14c.
What are ointment bases?
Typical ointment bases comprise petrolatum and mineral oil, or petrolatum and waxy/fatty alcohol combinations, the ratio and grades of these components being selected to give the desired finished product viscosity/spreadability.
How do you describe an ointment?
Ointments are preparations for external use, intended for application to the skin. Typically, they have an oily or greasy consistency and can appear “stiff” as they are applied to the skin. Ointments contain drug that may act on the skin or be…
How do you use ointment in a sentence?
Ointment sentence example
- I suggest that you apply a topical ointment to the wound after washing it.
- The official preparation is an ointment which contains one part of the alkaloid in fifty.
- He Himself spoke mysteriously of His burial, when a woman poured a vase of costly ointment upon His head.
What is the difference between ointment and cream?
What’s the difference between cream and ointment? Creams and ointments can be either medicinal or cosmetic. The primary difference between the two is the ratio between oil and water. While a cream has equal parts oil and water, ointments have about 80 percent oil.
What is ointment Wikipedia?
An ointment is a homogeneous, viscous, semi-solid preparation, most commonly a greasy, thick oil (oil 80% – water 20%) with a high viscosity, that is intended for external application to the skin or mucous membranes.
What are the characteristics of an ointment?
Ointments are preparations for external use, intended for application to the skin. Typically, they have an oily or greasy consistency and can appear “stiff” as they are applied to the skin.
How are the ointment classified?
Dosage forms are first classified as liquid or semisolid; whereby, solutions, suspensions, and lotions fall under the liquid category and creams, gels, pastes and ointments belong to the semisolid category.
What are the characteristics of ointment?
What does the name Ointment mean?
A general term for any of a number of therapeutic balms that are applied topically for various complaints; an ointment consists of a finely ground herbal powder in any of a number of oil bases, including almond oil, beeswax, lanolin, lard, petroleum jelly and sesame oil.
What is the difference between cream and ointment?
Ointments contain a higher percentage of oil than creams in their bases (80% in comparison to 50% in creams).
What do ointments mean?
Definition of ointment : a salve or unguent for application to the skin : a thick greasy medicine for use on the skin : a salve or unguent for application to the skin specifically : a semisolid medicinal preparation usually having a base of fatty or greasy material
What is ointment used for?
Mupirocin ointment is a topical medication used to treat skin infections, such as impetigo , according to MedicineNet. The medication is an antibiotic that stops the growth of bacteria in the skin, stopping the infection. Mupirocin ointment is a prescription medication.