Got me curious, so I did some digging: from a dermatological perspective, I’d give a strong vote ‘no’.
This is a wordy article, and not from the kinds of medical resources I usually consider credible, but it passes the smell test and the question is ultimately about glue, so a website specializing in it makes sense - I’d recommend giving it a read:
Ctrl+F “Dangers of Super Glue on Skin” if you want to skip to the juicy bits.
Basically you’re looking at chemical burns and skin breakdown as a short-term consequence; and neurological damage long term. You 100% do NOT want neurological damage in your fingers if playing a guitar (or… doing anything that uses your fingers) is important to you.
I’d guess there are products made specifically for this that won’t kill your fingers - you could probably find some recommendations at a more specific community here - quick search reveals a good handful of options specific to guitar… no idea if any of them are active, but that’d be a good start.
I believe these dangers will depend largely on the type of glue you use. I know that some super glue recipes are effectively the same ones used in surgical glues, which I would imagine would be safe® on your skin.
Either way, developing calluses naturally will be the best way to do it. They’ll form naturally to the right shape, but glue will be applied slightly differently each time, which could lead to consistency issues while learning to play.
surgical glues, which I would imagine would be safe® on your skin
Not necessarily. Some of the stuff we use in surgery is toxic as fuck. Like, in cases that use bone cement, any staff in the room who happen to be pregnant are required to leave the room once we get to that part of the case because just breathing in the fumes from that shit can fuck up the baby.
That said, it’s all about weighing risks against desired outcome: generally that super toxic shit is fine for the patient because they’re only exposed to it once and then sent on their way.
The closest thing we use to superglue is products like Dermabond (which is thicker, but otherwise I think it’s basically just superglue) to reinforce the sutures when closing a surgical incision. But same spiel - we put it on in the OR and send them on their way. It isn’t reapplied for any length of time, if there are any long term effects of Dermabond, we probably don’t even know about them because we never put on more than one application. …but even that will cause chemical burns to the epidermis; they’re just mild enough that they’re deemed worth it to keep the wound closed.
Huh, TIL about bone cement. I was curious so I looked it up, and for those who are also curious, it appears to typically be a mix of PMMA (i.e. plexiglass) and its monomer MMA (although some radically different materials have been developed). You mix the goo and it turns to dough and then eventually hardens into, well, plexiglass. The SDS for MMA doesn’t seem that bad, so there must be more to it than just that.
Thanks for sharing this! I never knew plexiglass was biocompatible-ish and was used in this way.
99% of the cases that use bone cement I’ve been in, in all of the hospitals I’ve worked at, have used that specific product. With the exception of a shoulder surgeon I worked with who liked this goopy blue shit that got everywhere.
In any case, that stuff is, uh… pungent. Like even when I’m not in the ortho room, if I want to check on how far along their case is, I don’t even need to actually look in the OR - getting near the room is enough to tell me whether or not the implants are in, indicated by the presence or absence of that smell within about 15-feet of each entrance to that OR.
Pregnant or not, I can’t imagine breathing that shit every day is doing us any favors. >_>
…and that’s ignoring electrocautery smoke, radiation, and all the biohazardous shit we’re exposed to in there. I swear in 10 years we’re going to be featured in cautionary training videos about what happens when you don’t use whatever latest-and-greatest technique is being pitched to keep that shit out of our lungs.
looks like it’s the monomer of plexiglass with hydroquinone to prevent premature polymerization and N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine which is like, an adhesive or something? The latter is probably the issue.
Yeah, seems like people working in medicine have a rough time of it. My sister works in a cath lab and I worry about her exposure levels sometimes. I know she wears a dosimeter but like, man, it’s a lot of X-rays.
Got me curious, so I did some digging: from a dermatological perspective, I’d give a strong vote ‘no’.
This is a wordy article, and not from the kinds of medical resources I usually consider credible, but it passes the smell test and the question is ultimately about glue, so a website specializing in it makes sense - I’d recommend giving it a read:
https://gluesavior.com/why-do-super-glue-bond-to-skin/
Ctrl+F “Dangers of Super Glue on Skin” if you want to skip to the juicy bits.
Basically you’re looking at chemical burns and skin breakdown as a short-term consequence; and neurological damage long term. You 100% do NOT want neurological damage in your fingers if playing a guitar (or… doing anything that uses your fingers) is important to you.
I’d guess there are products made specifically for this that won’t kill your fingers - you could probably find some recommendations at a more specific community here - quick search reveals a good handful of options specific to guitar… no idea if any of them are active, but that’d be a good start.
Good luck, and don’t kill your fingers!
Thank you!
I believe these dangers will depend largely on the type of glue you use. I know that some super glue recipes are effectively the same ones used in surgical glues, which I would imagine would be safe® on your skin.
Either way, developing calluses naturally will be the best way to do it. They’ll form naturally to the right shape, but glue will be applied slightly differently each time, which could lead to consistency issues while learning to play.
Not necessarily. Some of the stuff we use in surgery is toxic as fuck. Like, in cases that use bone cement, any staff in the room who happen to be pregnant are required to leave the room once we get to that part of the case because just breathing in the fumes from that shit can fuck up the baby.
That said, it’s all about weighing risks against desired outcome: generally that super toxic shit is fine for the patient because they’re only exposed to it once and then sent on their way.
The closest thing we use to superglue is products like Dermabond (which is thicker, but otherwise I think it’s basically just superglue) to reinforce the sutures when closing a surgical incision. But same spiel - we put it on in the OR and send them on their way. It isn’t reapplied for any length of time, if there are any long term effects of Dermabond, we probably don’t even know about them because we never put on more than one application. …but even that will cause chemical burns to the epidermis; they’re just mild enough that they’re deemed worth it to keep the wound closed.
Huh, TIL about bone cement. I was curious so I looked it up, and for those who are also curious, it appears to typically be a mix of PMMA (i.e. plexiglass) and its monomer MMA (although some radically different materials have been developed). You mix the goo and it turns to dough and then eventually hardens into, well, plexiglass. The SDS for MMA doesn’t seem that bad, so there must be more to it than just that.
Thanks for sharing this! I never knew plexiglass was biocompatible-ish and was used in this way.
Here’s the specific stuff I’m familiar with:
https://www.zimmerbiomet.com/en/products-and-solutions/specialties/cement/biomet-bone-cement-r.html
99% of the cases that use bone cement I’ve been in, in all of the hospitals I’ve worked at, have used that specific product. With the exception of a shoulder surgeon I worked with who liked this goopy blue shit that got everywhere.
In any case, that stuff is, uh… pungent. Like even when I’m not in the ortho room, if I want to check on how far along their case is, I don’t even need to actually look in the OR - getting near the room is enough to tell me whether or not the implants are in, indicated by the presence or absence of that smell within about 15-feet of each entrance to that OR.
Pregnant or not, I can’t imagine breathing that shit every day is doing us any favors. >_>
…and that’s ignoring electrocautery smoke, radiation, and all the biohazardous shit we’re exposed to in there. I swear in 10 years we’re going to be featured in cautionary training videos about what happens when you don’t use whatever latest-and-greatest technique is being pitched to keep that shit out of our lungs.
Ahhh, hell yeah time to dig for a SDS!
PDF warning: https://imgcdn.mckesson.com/CumulusWeb/Click_and_learn/SDS_ZIMMER_CEMENT_BONE_BIOMET_R_1X40_1_BX.pdf
looks like it’s the monomer of plexiglass with hydroquinone to prevent premature polymerization and N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine which is like, an adhesive or something? The latter is probably the issue.
Yeah, seems like people working in medicine have a rough time of it. My sister works in a cath lab and I worry about her exposure levels sometimes. I know she wears a dosimeter but like, man, it’s a lot of X-rays.