Piercing After Care
After-Care Tips for Your Piercings
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After-Care Tips for Piercings
Be it an ear, oral, or a genital piercing, after care is very important. A new piercing:
- Maybe tender, swollen, itchy or slightly red for a few weeks.
- May bleed a little for the first few days.
- May secrete a whitish-yellow fluid that crusts on the jewelry. This is not pus it is lymph.
- May tighten around the jewelry as it heals, making turning somewhat difficult when dry.
How to take care:
Cleanse your piercing not more than three times a day. Cleaning more frequently may damage the delicate skin cells and cleaning less frequently may invite an infection. When you’re not cleaning the piercing, leave it alone. We suggest cleansing with a gentle antiseptic containing benzethonium chloride.
If you cannot find this, then Bactine diluted with 50% water can be used. Never use isopropyl alcohol on any piercing. Bring the cleanser in the shower with you and that way you can pour it on the piercing and work the jewelry back and forth.
A hot water soak, hot compress, or sea-salt soaks in hot water promote healing and may excrete any possible or existing infection. The salt water solution should not be saltier than your own tears. Epsom and table salts are inappropriate and may cause problems.
Soaking can be done by inverting a small cup of the water or solution over the piercing, forming a seal or vacuum around the piercing. Allow the piercing to soak for fifteen minutes, once to twice daily. Do not use any ointments without consulting us or your doctor first.
After about three to five days, your body could build up immunity against the ointment while blocking up the piercing and can actually cause an infection or other complications. Make sure not to get any make-up, hair products, colognes, powders, or any other foreign matter into the piercing. Keep your hair clean at all times.
Touching your piercing may lead to infection:
We know it is hard but keep your hands away from your piercing! There are germs everywhere and you are no exception to infection. Everything that you touch has bacteria on it and these will easily be carried to your piercing. Also avoid rough contact and contact with any bodily fluids (yours and others), as this will irritate and cause possible infection.
Vigorous cleaning or using a cleanser that is too strong can create symptoms very similar to an infection. Always wash your hands with liquid antibacterial soap very well and avoid touching any objects before cleaning or handling your piercing. Friction caused by rough contact or excessive movement can cause dark redness, keloids, discharge, and rejection or migration.
Tips for Taking Care of Your Genital Piercings
Cleanse your genital piercing not more than twice a day. Choose one gentle liquid antibacterial soap containing Triclosan, such as Dial, Lever 2000, Softsoap, or Almay hypocare. If you are sensitive to Triclosan, you may want to try one of these alternatives: Clearly Natural antibacterial (iodine) or NutriBiotic antibacterial (grapefruit seed).
Oral Piercing After-Care Tips
For tongue piercings follow these steps for 6-8 weeks:
Cleanse your piercing after anything goes in your mouth (except ice or water). This includes coffee, tea, soft drinks, any food, and smoking. Rinse your mouth hourly (during waking hours) whether you ingest anything or not. You should be rinsing for 30-60 seconds at least 12 times a day during the first four to six weeks of having your piercing.
Suggested cleansers are Biotene, Rembrant, Oral B (Alcohol-free Antiseptic Mouthwashes) Or Listerine. If you choose Listerine, dilute it with 50% water, as the alcohol in it burns and will turn your tongue temporarily pale. Also, twice a day swish with a warm sea-salt solution for a few minutes to aid in healing.
In conjunction with mouthwash, you may use Gly Oxide or Peroxyl (found in the toothbrush aisle in any pharmacy). Apply twice daily, to the openings of the piercing, let it foam, and then spit it out. With all of these products, do not swish too vigorously, as it will cause problems with piercing.
A tongue piercing can be swollen and tender for an average of 2-5 days. You can suck on small pieces of clean ice or Freez-E pops to reduce swelling (remember to rinse your mouth after a Freez-E pop). Taking 600mg of Ibuprofen (Motrin) three times a day will also help with swelling and pain. For the first few nights while sleeping keep your head above your heart. This will greatly reduce overnight swelling. Once a day, check the balls on your jewelry to ensure that they are still screwed on tightly.
For Labret, Lip and Cheek Piercings follow these steps for 6-8 weeks:
Refer to the tongue piercing instructions above. You must follow all the steps of a tongue piercing, but you must also cleanse the outside surface twice a day. Use a medicated liquid anti-bacterial soap (containing the ingredient pomx of chloroxylenol such as Provon. Ask a pharmacist to help you find one.
If you cannot find these, then liquid anti-bacterial Dial or Lever 2000 can be used (dilute it with 50% water). A secretion called lymph (blood plasma) will crust on the jewelry throughout the day. Do not pick at this hardened matter or turn the piercing while it has the lymph on it.
Then lather the outside of the piercing with a small amount of the anti-bacterial soap and rotate the jewelry through the piercing about 8 times. Let the soap sit for 1-2 minutes before rinsing it off and rotating it while under running water. Do not use cloth towels to dry the piercing off. Use clean tissues or clean paper towels to pat it dry.
Additional Tips for All Oral Piercings
Never touch a healing piercing with dirty hands. Before touching or cleaning it, wash hands well with anti-bacterial soap. If your hands are not properly washed, do not touch yourself above the neck for the full 6-8 weeks of healing.
No oral sexual contact. This includes French kissing or oral sex during the healing period. Any sexual contact should be gentle, and latex barriers such as condoms should be used to protect the piercing from bodily fluids. Avoid chewing on fingernails etc. during the healing process. Replace your toothbrush often to ensure that everything that goes into your mouth is clean.
Don't remove the jewelry during healing time! Leave your jewelry in at all times while healing. The tips of the barbells have threading (like a screw) And you do not want to pull those through your unhealed piercing, and you might not be able to get the jewelry back in. Removing the jewelry will prolong healing time and create complications such as keloids.
Don't play with the piercing for the first 6-8 weeks beyond the necessary movement for eating or speaking. Undue stress on the piercing can cause the formation of unsightly and uncomfortable scar tissue.
Be aware that many doctors and dentists have no training or experience regarding piercing. Therefore they may offer inappropriate or inaccurate advice. If you don't get an infection, the jewelry should be left in, so that pus can drain.
If the jewelry is removed, the holes can close up, resulting in an abscess. Leave your jewelry in. Don't be alarmed if you see a secretion coming from the piercing. All piercings secrete plasma. It just looks different inside the mouth, as it does not have a chance to dry.
A new piercing can bleed on and off for a few days. There can also be some bleeding under the surface, resulting in temporary bruising or discoloration. This is perfectly normal and not indicative of any complication.
Alcohol or peroxide should not be used on any piercings. They are overly strong and drying and kill off healthy cells your body needs to heal. Don't use antibiotic ointments (such as Neosporin, Bacitracin, etc.) on any piercing. They don’t allow for proper air circulation, and they form a sticky residue in which bacteria can grow once the effect of the ointment is gone.
Friction caused by excessive movement or rough contract can cause dark redness, keloids, discharge, and rejection migration. All piercings usually take a year to completely heal and toughen up. The jewelry may be changed or downsized between 8-10 weeks.
Average healing time:
Tongue: 6-8 weeks
Lip and Labret: 8-10 weeks
Career: 2-3 months
The Healing Process
The overall healing process is enhanced by a well-balanced diet, vitamin-mineral supplements, vitamin C 3,000mg mineral ascorbic form, and zinc supplement (60mg-women and 120mg-men for about 2 weeks).
While your piercing is in the healing process, matter secreted from the piercing will dry on the jewelry and on the openings of the piecing. Do not pick at this matter. Wash the secretions off in the shower, so you can move the jewelry freely to work the cleanser into the piercing.
The healing process is different for everybody, although the average rate of healing is as follows:
EARLOBE, EYEBROW, SEPTUM: 6-8 weeks
EAR CARTILAGE, NOSTRIL, and BRIDGE: 2 months - 1 year
Almost all piercings usually take a year to completely heal and toughen up. The jewelry may usually be changed or downsized between 10-14 weeks, but no sooner than that. Because the jewelry might tear at the delicate tissue inside and create problems. We also suggest waiting for the healing process to complete before stretching any piercing.
If you must remove jewelry temporarily, call
us. It is not a problem to remove your jewelry permanently as long as there is no infection present at the time of removal. Stress, poor diet, or illness can cause longer healing times, or migration of the piercing.
Occasionally, the selected jewelry may not be appropriate. This may or may not be due to circumstances that occurred after the piercing. If the jewelry is too thin or too heavy, too large or too small in diameter, or not the appropriate style, you may experience healing problems. Contact
us if you suspect that you may need different jewelry.
Infections can be traced to one of the following activities:
- Touching your piercing with unwashed hands, or letting someone else touch your piercing.
- Oral contact with the piercing, including your own saliva.
- Allowing body fluids to come in contact with the piercing.
- Contact with hair, cosmetics, oils, infrequently washed clothing, bedding or other agents.
- Going into the pool, hot tub, lake, ocean or other body of water.
- A virus or cold transferred by your hands.
Signs of infection are:
- Redness and swelling.
- A sensation of heat at the piercing site.
- Pain, especially throbbing or spreading pain.
- Unusual discharge, it may be yellowish, greenish, or grayish
- A lump behind the piercing or at the openings of the piercing.
With over 20 years of combined experience, our experienced professionals can help you in case any of these signs appear. Contact
us.
Why Steri-Wash?
- It is the same medical-grade sterile saline solution used in hospitals
- Provides a fine mist with a twist open and close actuator
- It will not dry or affect surrounding tissues, as alcohol and peroxide may
- It remains sterile for the life of the can
- It will never clog and sprays in all directions, even upside down
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