Is using this ear care product a BAD idea for stretched/gauged ears?

Question

After a long, long wait of 5 months, I finally went from a two gauge, to a zero. I made sure to wear heavier plugs, in an effort to "weigh my ear down" and get a gap between the plug. It's been two days, and my ear is still in a large amount of pain, bleeding, and small amount of pus. I've been cleaning it with warm water (nothing in it) because that had always worked in the past.

I was wondering, I have some old ear care antiseptic (benzalkonium chloride) the give you when your first pierce your ears, would that do more damage than good? It got me through my ear infections when I first pierced, so maybe it will help again? Any other ideas?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I'd use saline solution.

You can either buy it sterile from pharmacies ( i think ) or go to the supermarket and buy some ROCK SALT (that's important, you mustn't buy table salt, it's too high in sodium) and dissolve it in sterile water (ie boiled in a kettle then allowed to cool).

Plus, the stuff you're using from when you first got your ears pierced will be old by now- chuck it away!

Answer 2

I wouldn't use that.

And don't use salt water like suggested.

It particularly needs to be sea salt water...non-iodised sea salt.

But if your ears are bleeding and there is a large amount of pain and some pus, it sounds to me like they weren't ready. Personally, I'd go back down to 2g and wear good quality jewelry (not acrylic) that is stainless steal or titanium and then wait for them to heal and stretch down with SS or titanium. Acrylic is very bad for healing piercings.

Answer 3

hm i think i used ear care stuff that when i gauged my ears like that stuff claires gave me when i got a regular piercing. i know when you go to a piercer they tell you to use dial soap and some water to clean it out.  so idk if youd want to try that. other than that i say take it out and go back to a two until it heals and then try to go to a zero later on if it bothers you too much or before it gets worse.

Answer 4

You should NEVER stretch your ears with acrylic jewelry.  You should always use non-porous materials like glass or stainless steel.  Acrylic is too porous to put through an autoclave or clean with rubbing alcohol (it causes the jewelry to crack) so you cannot properly sterilize it.  I'd say that is probably part of your problem.  Even if you didn't use the acrylic stuff to stretch them it is possible you put microtears in your ears that you cannot see so technically you should now treat your piercings as fresh, healing holes again.  

When I stretched my ears from 4G to 2G I went too fast and got microtears in both sides (DUMB) and the only thing that helped me was sea salt soaks, which is what I would recommend for you.  It felt like Piercing 101 going back to holding cotton balls soaked in sea salt water on my ears but it really really did help.  Once the infection cleared I massaged Vitamin E oil into my lobes.  This softened the piercings up a LOT and helped tons.  My piercings have always been super super tight and after I used the Vitamin E Oil on them for a week or so they loosened up quite a bit.  

I'd stay away from the cleaning solution, warm sea salt water is all you need.

Answer 5

I wouldn't use that.

Use a salt-water mixture to clean them.  

Answer 6

You should use metal, its cleaner and kinder! as for cleaning don't use any ointment or cream on it at all- just boil sea salt in a pan of water, let cool a bit and use plenty of that- try to bathe/soak it (i find a good big lump of cotton wool well soaked does this great if held in place for a min or two). really that's all you ever need to keep any piercing clean, i have 18 and have never had an infection, tear or anything nasty!! (but i learnt from my sister and shes a piercer- she did all of mine in her store and has probably punched a thousand holes in her time!)