A new piercing will be sore, tender or red for several days
up to three weeks. Complete healing normally takes several
weeks or more. Below are more specific healing time
estimates. During this period, care must be taken to avoid
infections. Touching--or, for genital and oral piercings,
sexual activity--is usually discouraged.
Healing of Body Piercing usually takes about as long as is
listed below; the body piercing jewelry should not be
removed during this period. The healing time should not be
rushed. Very often a piercing that seemed to be healed will
start to have problems when it is handled roughly, or
exposed to mouth contact or unwashed hands before fully
healed.
?Ear cartilage: 2 ? 4 months
?Ear lobes: 6 ? 8 weeks
?Eyebrow: 6 ? 8 weeks
?Lip/Labret: 2 ? 4 weeks
?Nostril: 6 ? 12 months
?Septum: 6 ? 8 weeks
?Tongue: 4 ? 6 weeks
?Navel piercing: 6 months
?Female Nipples: 4 ? 6 months
?Male Nipples: 2 ? 4 months
?Clitoris: 2 ? 4 weeks
?Prince Albert: 4 ? 9 weeks
Over time, after the piercing, the resulting wound is
allowed to heal, forming a tunnel of scar tissue called a
fistula. When the piercing has fully healed, the initial
body jewelry may be changed or removed for short periods.
Help for healing. Be careful with your Body Jewelry
?Revisiting the piercer for an evaluation at any time, if
needed
?Practicing good hygiene to piercing and body jewelry
?Following the recommended aftercare guidelines
?Taking sufficient supplement tablets like Iron, Zinc for
help the immunological system.
Behavior that hinders healing of Body Piercing
?Contact between the new piercing and another person's
skin.
?Touching the piercing or body jewelry, unless cleaning it,
in which case only with washed hands.
?Smoking and drinking alcohol.
?Contact between the piercing and body fluids, perfume or
cosmetics.
?Oral and genital sex.
?Swimming in public swimming pools, lakes, rivers, streams,
and oceans as they may be too harsh to promote skin cell
healing. Chlorine in swimming pool water may be an irritant.
Bacteria, protozoa, and parasites found in non-chlorinated
water can lead to infections on your body piercing jewelry.
Cleaning of Body Piercing & Body Jewelry
Oral piercings
For tongue, lip, cheek, and labret piercings, it is
recommended to rinse the mouth after smoking, eating and
drinking (except water). Some piercers recommend using
Listerine, while others, claiming that Listerine is too
harsh on the piercing thereby hindering the healing process,
recommend a non-alcoholic mouthwash such as Oral-B
Non-Alcoholic or Biotene, or a diluted saline solution.
Kissing and oral sex are advised against for 4-6 weeks after
the piercing, as are excessively hot or spicy foods. Some
recommend cold foods such as ice cream bars. Blended foods
are a great alternative - anything soft.
Body piercings
It is generally advised by piercers to use a sea salt soaks
(1/8 teaspoon per 8oz of distilled or boiled water);
proportionate mixes are marketed and sold by companies such
as H2Ocean) or a medical saline rinse, which could be placed
in a shot glass and held to the piercing for about 10
minutes, no more than 2 times a day. The solution could also
be soaked into a cotton ball and used to gently cleanse the
piercing morning and night.
Overcleaning is a common cause of irritation and redness in
a piercing, as well as inappropriate cleansing agents. Table
salt Sodium Chloride is considered to be less natural than
sea salt but in equal concentrations table salt may be less
irritating than sea salt because table salt may be purer
than sea salt. Another technique is sometimes practiced in
which a new piercing is left to heal completely on its own
without any cleansing, under the philosophy that the body
will treat it as any other minor wound. This is commonly
called the KIS method, which stands for "Keep It Simple."
Piercers who use this method compare the healing process to
getting stitches to heal up surgical wounds. Since one wants
the body to accept the jewelry and create a clean, firm
fistula, piercers who use this method advise that any
solution or chemical could irritate the piercing and cause
rejection and promote scarring and keloids.
Companies and stores such as Hot Topic and Claire's market
rinses used in ear and body piercing aftercare; some
piercers consider these suitable, however, others feel that
they have excess chemicals that only hinder the process. For
the most part, piercers agree that hydrogen peroxide and
isopropyl alcohol are effective in sanitation but too strong
for fresh piercings and often result in irritated piercings
or excess scar tissue.
Changing of initial body piercing jewelry to allow for
swelling
For some piercings (in particular tongue piercings) changing
the initial body jewelry is an essential step. In the case
of tongue piercing this is because the initial body jewelry
is significantly longer than the jewelry for a healed
piercing, to allow for swelling.
The debate over what constitutes proper aftercare is belied
by the simple fact that a healthy clean piercing that isn't
made to become irritated through harsh treatment (of any
kind) will almost always heal perfectly; but personal
preferences will vary.
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