Traditional dressings, also termed inert dressings including gauze, lint, plasters, cotton pads, and bandages(natural or synthetic), are the most widely used clinical dressings owing to their low cost and simple manufacturing process.Gauze dressings made out of woven and non-woven fibres of cotton, rayon, polyesters afford some sort of protection against bacterial infection. 

The traditional wound dressings require frequent changing to protect from maceration of healthy tissues, and do not provide a moisture. Due to excessive wound drainage, dressings become moistened and tend to become adherent to the wound making it painful when removing.