I'm asking here because I--being some sort of stereotyping jerk--figure maybe perverts would know about piercings.
I got my earlobes pierced about six weeks ago. The left one has healed nicely and is now all clean with a tidy, well-defined hole. The right one got gross. It's reddened, swollen, achy, bleeds if I touch the earring, and is making no progress toward healing. (There's no pus and it's not SUPER swollen so I don't think it's badly infected, but it's not right either.)
Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions? I've been washing it with 0.12% benzalkonium chloride twice a day and otherwise trying to leave it alone. I welcome any advice on how to turn this from ear soup into a nice pretty piercing.
I'd recommend salt water actually, less irritating, and you need to leave the earring in if it's infected, so it doesn't close with an infection in it, cause that's even nastier.
ReplyDeleteI've had my hood, nose, and lip pierced, and I used salt water (saline spray actually) for my nose and hood, and that worked just fine. I used dial foam for my lip and that did the trick. I've found Dial to be pretty gentle too if you want to try that.
I'm going to second the salt water recommendation. Make sure you use non-iodized sea salt, if you can (you can buy this at Whole Food or a similar type of store), mix it with warm water, and soak the piercing. When I had a healing nose piercing, I'd bring a bowl into the shower with me, mix the salt water in that, blow bubbles in it, and then just dump the mixture down the drain.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Avah and dimethirwen - Thank you, sounds like a good idea!
ReplyDeleteThirded the sea salt- regular salt soaks, as many as you can reasonably fit in a day, are your best friend when it comes to a recalcitrant non-infected piercing. The stuff you're using is probably irritating it; anything but the gentlest disinfectants/antimicrobials usually do.
ReplyDelete(I've healed three non-lobe ear piercings, one below the neck, and failed to heal one nipple piercing that was sited badly.)
I hear all the salt water and do you one better: there is an aerosolized, mildly salinic product called H2Ocean which is amazing for piercings. Most people when mixing their own salt water make it too salty; this can actually inhibit healing, and H2Ocean is just right, salinically. :) Other than that, don't touch it except possibly to clean away excess gunk with a q-tip, and don't sleep on that side. Wash your pillowsheets, sometimes bacteria can adhere to them.
ReplyDeleteSaline soaks. Hot saline soaks, and warm compresses. Heat a washcloth in the microwave, and apply to the ear. Leave the earring in, so it will drain-otherwise you get an abscess.
ReplyDeleteI use plain old optical or IV saline. But yes, "what everybody else said". You don't want to use anything harsher, because it'll kill the new skin cells that are trying to form.
ReplyDelete