Bearded Dragon injured chin

Question
My beardie has a scraped up chin/nose and it keeps re-injuring it.  I have painted it with new skin and am keeping an eye on it but is there anything else I can do? Why does he keep scraping it up on his cage?  His cage is made of screen material - I think I may have to move him to a tank - but I paid a lot for the screened one.  Not sure what to do.

Answer
Hi Jennifer,

That can be a very frustrating situation. There are a couple species like Chinese Water dragons and basilisks that are well known for that behaviour and will scrape the snout area down to the point of losing teeth and exposing bone!
Reptile wounds are slower to heal then those of mammals and it can take a few shed cycles before a good covering is over the wound. Avoid the use of Hydrogen peroxide which can be damaging to newly formed tissue. Also avoid any topical wound preparations that contain "pain relief".

You may have the same problem in the glass tank although the glass would be less damaging. Some reptiles become obsessed with trying to get to an area that they can see, despite the presence of screen or glass being in the way. Tortoises are prone to this and usually have to be kept in non-see-through enclosures because of that behaviour.
It won't be that attractive but I would suggest temporarily putting some type of visual blocker such as dark paper around the lower portion of his cage. That technique has worked for stubborn snout damagers like water dragons. It may stop the behaviour long enough to at least let the injured area heal.