Ear Piercing Infection - Advice
The most common cause of infection in body
piercings is the transfer of microorganisms from dirty hands to the
piercing site, according to the Association of Professional
Piercers. Other contaminants that may cause infection come from
contact with bodily fluids or unsanitary water, such as when
swimming in a lake or river. You'll know your ear piercing is
infected if it secretes thick, green, smelly pus, the site looks
red, or it feels swollen and tender. Your earlobe may also feel warm
to the touch. You can treat minor infections at home by keeping the
infected area clean and using sea salt soaks to draw out irritants.
Many people complain of bumps on their piercings. While proper care
usually keeps these from forming, sometimes a piercing gets a bump
with the best of care. Identifying the bump and treating it can
reduce pain, and help your piercing heal faster.
The reasons for getting a bump could be always different, from non -
sterilized equipment to non professional aftercare treatment. It
depends! That's the reason you should never listening to your
firends and their advice - experiance.
If you develop a bump at the site of a body piercing, draining it
should never be a "do-it-yourself" endeavor. A bump, especially if
the site turns red, swollen or painful, or drains pus, could
indicate a staphylococcus infection or other bacteria. See your
doctor immediately; the doctor might choose to drain the bump and
send the fluid for testing to determine the type of bacteria
present. In the meantime, your doctor might start you on an oral
antibiotic.
Any time you create a wound in the skin like a body piercing, you
run the risk of developing an infection. The risk increases if the
equipment used to create the opening isn't scrupulously cleaned and
sterilized between uses.
Signs of an infection of a pierced ear are tenderness, a yellow
discharge, redness, and some swelling. The most common causes of
infection are piercing the ears with unsterile equipment, inserting
unsterile posts, or frequently touching the earlobes with dirty
hands.
Another frequent cause is earrings that are too tight either because
the post is too short (the thickness of earlobes varies) or the
clasp is closed too tightly. Tight earrings don't allow air to enter
the channel through the earlobe. Also, the pressure from tight
earrings reduces blood flow to the earlobe and makes it more
vulnerable to infection.
Some inexpensive earrings have rough areas on the posts that scratch
the channel and can cause an infection. Inserting the post at the
wrong angle also can scratch the channel, so a mirror should be used
until insertion becomes second nature. Posts containing nickel can
also cause an itchy, allergic reaction.
Prevention Advice
Step 1
Use antibacterial or antimicrobial soap to wash your hands to avoid
introducing new bacteria to the infected area. Scrub your hands for
at least 20 seconds.
Step 2
Dissolve 1 tbsp. of non-iodized sea salt in 8 ounces of warm
distilled water.
Step 3
Soak the infected piercing in the sea salt solution for three to
five minutes. If possible, fill a small cup with the solution and
submerge the infected lobe. If this is uncomfortable or you have an
attached earlobe that makes this difficult, soak sterile gauze or
cotton swabs in the solution and apply generous amounts of the
solution to the infected area.
Step 4
Rinse with clean, warm water and dry with a clean paper towel. Do
not use a hand towel or washcloth because they can harbor germs.
Step 5
Repeat this method at least once a day in conjunction with your
regular cleaning regimen until the infection clears.
Treating Inflammation
A reddened bump doesn't always mean infection. In some cases,
inflammation can develop at the site from irritation from the
piercing rather than infection. With inflammation, the redness is
usually localized, improves with time, doesn't spread and doesn't
have a foul smell. Draining an inflamed bump won't help at all,
since it doesn't contain infected material. Injecting the bump with
cortisone often helps reduce inflammation, although you might need
more than one treatment, depending on the size of the inflamed area.
Potential Complications
Trying to drain an infected site yourself could make an infection
much worse, especially if you use a contaminated tool and introduce
even more bacteria into the wound. A serious infection that enters
the blood stream can be fatal. Let your doctor determine whether a
bump that develops at the site of a body piercing needs draining.
Only a medical professional should perform this procedure.
Guide to heal your piercing:
Identify what type of bump you have. The most common bump on a
healing piercing is a boil, or bacterial pocket. This occurs when
trauma causes a small tear, and microbes enter the wound. Boils are
often painful and red, and may secrete pus or blood. Another common
bump is hypotrophic scarring. Cartilage piercings, especially all
types of industrials, are prone to this type of scar. Hypotrophic
scarring is a bump surrounding the exit hole, the same color as your
skin. It may feel hard, but often are not painful. They are usually
caused by jewelry putting pressure on the piercing, and the body
responds by scarring. The most serious bump is a keloid. It's scar
tissue that grows beyond the boundary of a piercing. Keloids are
hard to treat, they often need surgical removal. Dark skinned people
have a higher risk of keloid scars.
Boils are the most common, and easiest to treat of al piercing
bumps. Sea salt soaks should be done daily on any healing piercing.
Mix 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt with warm water, and soak the piercing
for 5-15 minutes a day. This will help treat and prevent bumps, by
drawing the pus and foreign particles out of the wound. Rinse your
piercing after soaking to remove excess salt.
If sea salt soaks aren't reducing your bumps, try using chamomile
tea bags as hot compresses. Dip the bag into warm water and hold
against the piercing. Re-dip when the bag loses heat. Do this once
or twice a day for 10 minutes. You can alternate tea bags and sea
salt soaks.
For some body parts, sea salt soaks are difficult. Use cotton balls
on hard to reach places, or try shot glasses or large bowls,
depending on the body part.
Make sure your salt solution is no saltier than tears. Too much salt
will do more harm than good.
A saline spray for piercings is a good idea for on-the-go treatment.
They should not replace soaks, since the warm water helps draw
things out of the piercing. Solutions also sit on skin, and can be
drying. Don't overuse them.
For stubborn bumps that resist sea salt and chamomile treatments,
try using tea tree oil. Dilute one drop of aromatherapy grade tea
tree essential oil into a shot glass. You can also use a skin
friendly oil to dilute. Dap this on the bump twice a day with a
cotton bud. Tea tree is a strong antiseptic, and will kill most
germs. It's also very strong, and can dry skin, so use sparingly.
Hypotrophic scarring is often due to pressure on a piercing.
Changing your jewelry is usually the best move. If the scar is
around a ring or other curved jewelry, switch to something straight,
like a barbell. If it's on an industrial, put individual jewelry in
each piercing. Consult your piercer for jewelry changes in unhealed
piercings. Time and oil massages often improve scarring. If
hypotrophic scars don't improve after some time, steroid injections
and certain topical creams may help. Consult a doctor to see if this
is an option.
If your bumps looks like scar tissue, doesn't respond to the above
treatments, and is getting bigger or goes beyond the piercing
itself, it may be a keloid. Keloids are large, and often a darker
color than the surrounding skin. See a doctor or dermatologist to
determine this. Keloid may require surgical removal or steroid
treatments. Be advised, however, occasionally keloid removal results
in more scar tissue. If you know you are prone to keloids, you may
want to rethink being pierced.
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