Embalming may be a new term to you until you plan for your loved one's funeral. It is a process used to temporarily preserve a body for viewing, medical reasons, or long-distance travel. Discover some facts about embalming while making funeral arrangements for your loved ones. 

1. What Are the Benefits of Embalming?

Embalming is mainly practiced to show respect to the departed and makes it easier to identify a corpse while viewing the body. Most people believe that seeing the body of their loved ones is vital in the grieving process, even when you might have anticipated their death. 

Thus, embalming ensures proper preparation and grooming to make the body more presentable to those who view it. In addition, decomposed, frozen, drowned, or significantly injured bodies may require special embalming to make them presentable for viewing.

Embalming is minimally invasive and doesn't involve the removal of all body organs. The restoration process ensures that the deceased looks more like when they were alive. In this case, they may ask you to present a photograph of the deceased to ensure that the deceased person appears as natural as possible.

2. How Well Does Embalming Preserve the Body?

Often, embalming doesn't preserve the body for a long time. Instead, it helps delay the body's decomposition depending on the method, chemical strength, and the surrounding temperature.

In this regard, if you keep the body in a sealed casket in a warm climate, the body is more likely to decompose rapidly than if you keep it in a cooler climate. Thus, embalming is essential when you want to transport a body to another place or when it's held without refrigeration for an extended period. 

3. What are the Embalming Alternatives?

You can consider green embalming if you want eco-friendly embalming. In this case, the embalming fluid contains biodegradable essential oils. These oils stall the addition of harmful chemicals to the soil once the disintegration process begins. Also, they protect the embalmers from toxic chemicals affecting their health.

However, embalming is a personal choice; you can decide to have a private body viewing ceremony without the embalming. You can also use dry ice and sealed containers as an alternative to embalming for refrigeration purposes.

Specifically, these substitutes are cost-effective and eco-friendly. In addition, they ensure that the body remains cool and dry. Nonetheless, some funeral home experts require embalming for public viewings at their facilities.

If you have burial plans, embalming is one of the main activities that you may undertake. Although you now understand the process, you should consult with your funeral home services provider to guide you on the ideal embalming for your deceased.