Infected ear lobe piercing?

BetterThanThou

Alright, last week I got both my ears pierced, 3 piercings in a triangle shape on one ear lobe, and just one regular stud on the other.
Truth be told, I was being lazy with cleaning them, not heating up the water, not washing my hands, and now, one of the piercings in the triangle is infected.
Now, I'm cleaning it correctly, but, I have a worry that, due to the swelling, the stud seems to be sunk into the piercing a bit, though, I can't tell if completely, would it be possible for the stud to be healed over due to this?

January

If it's sinking into the skin it might be too tight, loosen it a bit.

Princess Peach

It's probably just from the swelling that it looks like that. It won't heal over it, just might get a bit crusty over it due to the infection. Happened me before. Just keep doing sea salt soaks twice a day.

Passenger

Might be best to loosen or even screw off the stud to let the swelling dissipate.

Also, it might be easier to recommend the best solution if we see a pic, OP.

RhoDoDenDron

Right, first of all, what style of jewellery are you wearing? If you're wearing the "standard" butterfly-back studs, they can quite commonly cut into the ear and reduce circulation. They're also quite commonly made of inferior materials, which can irritate your ear. If you're not already wearing titanium barbells, I would advise switching. You should absolutely not pay over 5 euro per bar and any reputable piercer will happily change the jewellery for you.

Secondly, just to put you at ease, it's probably not an infection. People commonly refer to irritation as infection, but actual infection is quite rare. You can tell by the fluid that comes out. If it's white/clear, then the fluid is lymph. Lymph is simply caused by an over-production of white blood cells, and is the body's natural defence when healing wounds. This is normal, and excess lymph may be caused by irritation. If the fluid is dark green/brown, then that's pus, and means there is infection.

Some embedded can be alright, but not if the jewellery has harsh edges and could cut into your ear, which would be the case with butterfly-back studs.

Basically, you want to do two things:

A - Make sure you're wearing appropriate jewellery. Minimum would be implant-grade steel, but preferably titanium. No butterfly studs.

B - Make sure you clean it properly. A spoonful of salt in a cup of water, heated for a bit in the microwave. Just soak a cotton bud or tissue and let it soak the piercing, don't dab at it, as that can irritate it. Alternatively, you can buy sterile saline in a pharmacy (contact lens solution) and just heat that up in a microwave, than apply same as above. Once a day should suffice, twice if you have time. Gradually reduce as the piercing heals.

In fact, all of that is good practise for any piercing. Anyway, it doesn't seem too bad from your description so I'm sure you'll be fine! Sorry if I went into a bit much detail, but always handy to have this kind of information for all to read. Good luck with your piercings!

BetterThanThou

Thank you for the replies, it does seem it may just be irritation, as the fluid coming from it is just white. I don't doubt the studs are bad quality as I got them pierced in a place which would be questionable at best(not my best idea.), though, I'm not sure what they're made out of. I've only had them pierced for a week, I was told wait 6 weeks to change the studs, would I be able to change them any sooner than that? I got them pierced with a gun.

RhoDoDenDron

BetterThanThou wrote: »

Thank you for the replies, it does seem it may just be irritation, as the fluid coming from it is just white. I don't doubt the studs are bad quality as I got them pierced in a place which would be questionable at best(not my best idea.), though, I'm not sure what they're made out of. I've only had them pierced for a week, I was told wait 6 weeks to change the studs, would I be able to change them any sooner than that? I got them pierced with a gun.

If you go to a professional piercer, they can change them for you. It's not ideal, but it's less ideal to continue wearing poor quality jewellery. And like I said, you should pay about 5 euro per bar. If you're based in Dublin, either of the Wildcats are great for picking up jewellery, not so sure of other cites/towns.

BetterThanThou

Also, I've got a couple of questions regarding other piercings which I might as well throw in here instead of making another topic.
What is the healing like for anti-tragus, rook, conch and helix piercings like? I play a sport where they may occasionally get a bit of a knock, though, not likely anything huge, would any of them present any problem with this?
I also want to get my tongue pierced, and I've seen some barbells which seem like they may be a bit heavy, would it be alright using these once I can change the barbell? Or wait a while until it's fully healed to put something heavy in?

Edit: Didn't see the last message when I posted this, thank you, I'll find out what the piercings I'm using are made out of, and if they'd bad quality, I'll get them replaced with something of a better quality.

RhoDoDenDron

No problem, I'll try to answer what I can!

Anti-tragus, rook and conch are all going to be slow-healers. You won't be in pain, but expect mild discomfort and irritation for the better part of a year with them. Helix is also slow, but not quite as bad, in my experience. They're not bad piercings to get, but do bear in mind that they won't be properly comfortable for quite some time. My conch is currently only two months old, so is still healing and produces quite a bit of crusties at times. Out of my six helix piercings, I only have four in, as my aftercare is usually pretty lazy.

As for tongue piercings, they heal pretty quickly. The saliva in your mouth helps this. You're looking at a week or two with a really long barbell, then it's changed to a closer fit as the swelling goes down. It'll be tender for a few weeks after that, but I'd say you could wear heavier-style jewellery inside of two months. However, I would bear in mind that jewellery like that could cause teeth/oral damage, which is always a risk with oral jewellery that isn't quite minimalist.

BetterThanThou

RhoDoDenDron wrote: »

No problem, I'll try to answer what I can!

Anti-tragus, rook and conch are all going to be slow-healers. You won't be in pain, but expect mild discomfort and irritation for the better part of a year with them. Helix is also slow, but not quite as bad, in my experience. They're not bad piercings to get, but do bear in mind that they won't be properly comfortable for quite some time. My conch is currently only two months old, so is still healing and produces quite a bit of crusties at times. Out of my six helix piercings, I only have four in, as my aftercare is usually pretty lazy.

As for tongue piercings, they heal pretty quickly. The saliva in your mouth helps this. You're looking at a week or two with a really long barbell, then it's changed to a closer fit as the swelling goes down. It'll be tender for a few weeks after that, but I'd say you could wear heavier-style jewellery inside of two months. However, I would bear in mind that jewellery like that could cause teeth/oral damage, which is always a risk with oral jewellery that isn't quite minimalist.

Thank you, in regards to the anti-tragus, rook and conch, a friend of mine had a scaffold piercing, and he said it was so painful that it was unbearable for someone to even touch off it, is it like this? Or would it be a bit of an uncomfortable pain if someone touched off it, similar to lobes?

RhoDoDenDron

BetterThanThou wrote: »

Thank you, in regards to the anti-tragus, rook and conch, a friend of mine had a scaffold piercing, and he said it was so painful that it was unbearable for someone to even touch off it, is it like this? Or would it be a bit of an uncomfortable pain if someone touched off it, similar to lobes?

It's by no means unbearable, his sounds like it was in a bad way. It's similar to when you lobes were initially pierced, but for a while. It's a dull pain when someone presses off it.

SillyMangoX

Just want to jump in here, if you do get your rook pierced make sure a curved bad or ring is used, never ever go for a straight one. Mine was originally done with a straight bar and rejected so I'm left with a little patch of no cartillage! They re did it free of charge with a ring once it was fully healed and even though I've had it roughly 5 years now it would occasionally give me a bit of bother if I bang off it or sleep too long on it. The conch on the other hand, while it was up there as one of my most painful piercings, it's never given me the slightest bit of bother, I actually forget I have it at times!