Submitted by cryptorusticator t3_zzhixr in askscience
(Unsure if best place to ask/best flair, thank you for your time.)
I obtained a scald injury on my hand recently, and have been researching radiation casually. I experience flares of pain on the scald area whenever I accidentally warm the skin up, such as proximity to warm skin or hot mugs, etc. Naturally, on the flip side, cold = good.
It got me wondering: could a radiation burn feel similarly? I know about sun exposure increasing pain for some radiation burns, but I don't know about warmth-related pain, since it's UV that causes the sunlight pain.
I couldn't find an answer by Googling, and my guess is no they don't (except from burns from thermal radiation) but I have no reason to think that, I guess. A burn is a burn, right? Or are radiation burns fundamentally different in some way?
Edit: typo
CatHavSatNav t1_j2cwbwh wrote
https://www.eviq.org.au/clinical-resources/radiation-oncology/side-effect-and-toxicity-management/1477-management-of-radiation-induced-skin-reaction#management
Cold is good. At work we tell people to put their sorbolene cream in the fridge to make it nice and cold when they apply it. We use what we call "wet dressings" where sorbolene and lignocaine are applied to the affected region of skin and then dressings soaked in cold saline are applied over this and left in place for 20-30 minutes.