How to Care for Your Body Piercing --10
Tips for Cleaning and Avoiding Infection
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August 16, 2010
By Louise Carr, Contributing Columnist and Susan Callahan, Health
Editor
Body piercings are every where-- and on everybody. Teenagers,
soccer Moms, 50-year old air guitarists--everybody wants that extra
"edge" that wearing a body piercing can give you. But what about the
health risks of body piercings? What do you need to consider if you, or
your fashion-focused teenager, wants a body piercing? Just what
exactly can you pierce and will you be risking your health if you go
under the needle in pursuit of a more decorated body? How do you
keep your body piercing clean and healthy?
Types of Body Piercing
Look round some neighborhoods in the United States and you'll see a
body piercing in pretty much any part of your body.
Some body parts are more extreme than others. The most common
forms of piercing are found on the head and face. Pierced ear lobes
are of course the most common form of body piercings. The oldest
mummy remains are 5,300 year-old Ötzi the Iceman, found in a
Valentina Trujillon glacier in Austria wearing --you guessed it --ear
piercings. So, the practice of ear piercing has been around for
thousands of years.
Men have long pierced their ears as well. King Charles I, Sir Walter
Raleigh and even Shakespeare sported earrings in one ear. Sailors in
the 17th and 18th centuries began wearing earrings out of a
superstitious belief that doing so improved their ability to see far
distances. Roman soldiers also pierced their nipples, according to
historical reports. Lip and tongue piercing is traditional among
Africans and American Indian tribes.
You can pierce your nose in several places – the bridge, the septum
and the nostril – as well as your lip, eyebrow, chin, tongue, cheek and
even the thin webbing between your upper teeth and lip. Ear piercings
are varied, covering the main earlobe, the inner ear cartilage or the
outer cartilage.
Other parts of the body that can handle piercings are the navel and the
nipple. Less common piercings include the webs between the fingers
and the knuckles, along with ‘surface piercings’ which can be found all
over the body. Men and women also experiment with piercings in more
intimate places, to make a statement or enhance sexual pleasure.
Researchers from the Health Protection Agency and the London School
of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, England, discovered in 2008 that
about 10 percent of English adults had a body piercing somewhere
other than the ear. The study looked at 10,503 participants aged 16
and over and found women were more likely than men to have a body
piercing. The most common was the navel – 33 percent – followed by
the nose with 19 percent.
Risks of Body Piercings
What you need to worry about most when you’re getting pierced is
infection. Signs your piercing is infected include redness, swelling, a
feeling of warmth around the piercing, pain and pus. In the 2008
Health Protection Agency and the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine research, 25 percent of piercings resulted in medical
complications, with one percent requiring hospital admission.
Healing Process of Body Piercings
Your piercing heals in three stages and you need to take care of it
throughout the process in order to avoid infection. The inflammatory
phase is when the piercing is open and bleeding, when redness and
soreness is common. The healing phase occurs when the body forms a
tunnel of scar tissue around the piercing called a fistula. Following this
is the maturation or remodeling phase where the cells strengthen and
stabilize. Help the healing go smoothly with the following tips.
10 Tips for Cleaning and Avoiding Infection In a Body Piercing
1. Use The Correct Metal
Avoid an allergic reaction by sticking to body piercing jewelry made
from "safe" metals. Ask your piercer for hypoallergenic jewelry made
from surgical-grade steel, titanium, niobium or 14- or 18-carat gold.
Using cheaper, more volatile metals is a false economy as you’re more
likely to encounter problems down the line which you’ll pay for in
discomfort and irritation.
2. Don’t Fiddle
Keep your hands away from your piercing, particularly in the early
stages when physical trauma can cause tearing, friction or bumping
and delay healing. Try not to twist it unless you are cleaning it and
make sure clothes don’t catch on your jewelry.
Naval piercings are particularly vulnerable to rubbing from your
clothes. Protect your piercing with a vented eye patch applied under
your clothing. Remember to keep your piercing in place throughout the
healing process, which could take around six weeks, to prevent the
hole from closing and minimize infection.
3. Tongue Piercings Can Ruin Your Teeth and Gums
You should pay particular attention to oral piercings. A 2002 study
from the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry and Ohio State
University College of Dentistry discovered that wearing tongue
jewelry increases your chances of gum recession and chipped teeth.
The survey found that 35 percent of people with tongue piercings
suffered from gum recession. 50 percent of those wearing ‘long
barbell’ piercings for more than two years suffered from gum
recession. Additionally, 47 percent of subjects wearing either long or
short barbells for four or more years had chipped teeth. The
researchers believe tooth chipping happens though the habitual biting
of the barbell. If you have a tongue piercing, keep up your dental
checks to make sure you’re not giving yourself a mouthful of gum and
tooth trouble.
4. Choose Your Piercer With Care
The Health Protection Agency and the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine research found that although 80 percent of piercings
were carried out in shops that specialize in piercing, 10 percent of
tongue piercings were not performed by experts. Some respondents
reported that they had pierced themselves or received the piercing
from a friend or relative. This can cause a whole lot of trouble with
infection and pain.
Your registered piercer should wear gloves, use the correct type of
piercing equipment which will cause the minimum of pain and
disruption to the skin and must sterilize their equipment after each
piercing in a heat sterilization machine (autoclave). Anything that can’
t be placed in the sterilizer should be disinfected with a bleach
solution. Make sure you take away written and verbal aftercare
instructions for your particular piercing. And stick to them.
5. Avoid Bruising Your Eyebrow Piercing
Pierced eyebrows are susceptible to bruising. Minimize the ill effects
by placing a cool pack on your brow to help shrink swollen tissues. It
may not be easy, but sleeping on your ‘non-pierced’ side will
significantly reduce pressure on the piercing, and consequently lessen
bruising. Try to live with it – putting make-up over the bruise may
introduce infection into the site of the piercing – as it should only last
a week or two. If you don’t see any improvement after this time, ask
your doctor for advice.
6. Use Lotions and Potions
Use topical creams and solutions to prevent infection and reduce pain
lotions for your piercings but make sure you choose the right kind.
Here is a good daily routine for your body piercings.
Clean your piercing in the morning and at night with warm water and a
very mild, or anti-bacterial, soap. Don’t use hydrogen peroxide or
hand soap because it may damage healthy cells and cause scar tissue.
Rinse your tongue piercing with an alcohol-free mouthwash or sterile
saline solution after each meal and before going to bed. If you’re in
pain, try sucking on ice to reduce swelling and don’t forget to brush
your teeth to get rid of bacteria.
Use anitibiotic ointment if you have an infection. Only use antibiotic
ointments if you have an actual infection that causes increased
redness and discharge.
7. Protect Your Body Piercing from Sweat and Sunscreen In the
Summer
Take extra care of your piercing during the summer when it could be
exposed to sweat, sunscreen and sand. Stay out of the sun, and off the
sun bed, until the initial healing phase is over and don’t use tanning
oils around the pierced area. Chemicals in swimming pools and hot
tubs can also increase irritation. As a general rule, take showers
rather than baths after you’ve been on the beach because dirty bath
water hanging around in the tub can infect a fresh piercing.
8. Take Special Care When Pregnant
If you’re pregnant, wait until after the birth to get your navel pierced
because your stomach will change considerably during pregnancy and
a pierced hole can expand too much, causing infection. The same goes
for nipple piercing. If you’ve already got your navel pierced you can
change your metal jewelry to plastic which will help you feel more
comfortable. Some women with pierced nipples lose sensitivity in the
nipple which can cause problems for breast feeding but the main risk
is from the jewelry itself – barbell jewelry is a potential choking
hazard and can also hurt your baby’s mouth.
9. Prevent Keloids from Body Piercings
A keloid is a growth at the site of the piercing of dense fibrous tissue.
It often develops after the piercing has healed, or if you knock a
piercing hard when it is healing. If you notice a keloid forming, remove
the jewelry and allow the piercing to heal over. Consult your piercer if
you don’t want to remove the jewelry, which may cause the piercing
to close up.
10. Tips for Long-Term Care
Even after your piercing has healed it will benefit from regular
cleaning. Infections often begin as bacterial growth inside the healed
piercing. Rinsing your piercings with saline solution every three or
four months can help prevent germ build-up.
Sterilize the tip of any new jewelry you may use to replace your
original piercing, and don’t forget to follow the rule of choosing the
correct metals. Make sure your diet is good and healthy. This will not
only benefit your body but will aid in healing your piercing.
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