What do I do if my stretched ear piercing is infected?

Question

First of all whoever out that is gonna suggest surgery to fix the "problem" of having streched ears are extremely ignorant so don't even bother which you will anyway for some reason. And another thing if you are insulting people who have these said stretched piercings you are insulting a huge part of African culture that has been going on for generations and generations...

Alright so I started at 12g and kept them for a month and yesterday and bought some 8gs and had the piercer put them in with. Now I was worried that I would stain my white bone strechers with the brown oily stuff that you get if you dont clean your ears. So I though I should take them out to clean the ear and the strechers with antiseptic but when I was taking out the right one, the piercing started bleeding and my stretcher was sliding off from the amount of blood so I took it off completely 'cus I didn't want red stains. after cleaning the ear rings and the lobes off I put them back in (with a little bit of pain) by now the bleeding had stopped. I dabbed polysporin with a Q-tip on both front and back of the piercing but now (a few hours later) Im afraid that it might be infected. I tried dipping my right ear in salt water (with my piercing in because im afraid to take it out again) but I didnt feel the way salt water usually does on an infection. My ear lobe looks red around the piercing and might be a bit swollen compared to the other one... so any thoughts

If you do not know anything about ear stretching or infected piercings please don't bother

Answer 1

it might be bleeding because you skipped a size. what you should do is take antibiotics (if it is infected) and clean them everyday. don't take them out, or try to stretch again for a couple weeks.

Answer 2

polysporin's primary use is for treating pinkeye...not for proper maintenance of a piercing, or in your case a stretched piercing. additionally, like neosporin, it contains bacitracin which is known for irritating the skin. by you messing with your still newly stretched ears, you're going to experience redness and swelling.

you skipped a gauge size and that would be a cause for the blood, you probably tore the tissue. bone, while great to use for healed stretches, is very porous and not a good idea to wear with still healing stretched piercing.

the best thing for you to do at this point is to buy some different jewlery to put in. high grade steel or titanium would be best.

I highly doubt that you have an infection, it sounds to me like you've just irritated your new stretches.

don't take your jewelry out to clean the area. you need to be treating your stretches just like you'd treat a new piercing, because they are the same as one.  

Answer 3

i stretched my ears a while back and my ears got infected, itchy, and scabby..it was really gross

i just kept putting neosporin (sp?) on them and twisting them a lot so it would get everywhere

just try not to mess with them too much i guess..and leave them in

by mess with them i mean take them out constantly..

Answer 4

First of all, you're using bone jewelry. It's an organic and is porous; it breeds bacteria and shouldn't be used for fresh stretches. Change to titanium or stainless steel single flare (or no flare) plugs.

Second of all, you're using the wrong stuff to clean it!

Use salt water.

You can do this two ways...

A) (The lazy way; i normally use this way when i got to the gym and can't do proper hot sea salt soaks....) But 0.9% saline solution at the pharmacist (buy in small packets, as they become contaminated after opening and you don't want to be using a single contaminated packet for 6 months!) Take one end of a q-tip and saturate it with the saline solution. clean the front of the earring. take the other end of the q-tip, saturate it with saline, and clean the back.

B) (The proper way; this is much better, as the heat encourages the dead cells and lymph to escape.) Mix 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodised sea salt into 1 cup of HOT WATER. Wait for it to cool a bit, and when it's as hot as you can bear, dip your ear in for 5-10 minutes. Repeat with the other ear.

Both of these methods, do it 3 times a day for 4 months. Don't spin the jewelry or even touch the jewelry; all you'll be doing is spinning all the germs and gunk back into the piercing and disturbing the healing cells. Your jewelry will not stick to your skin if it's made of good materials!

Don't use alcohol or the ear care solution given to you by your piercer. Alcohol is WAY too harsh, and will kill your skin cells instead of encouraging it to heal (that's why it stings). In addition to that, Alcohol kills the transient (good) bacteria in your skin, letting the invasive (bad) bacteria in.  Any polysporin or antiseptic is also bad, as they block air flow to the piercing, and lets the bacteria breed. In fact, don't ANYTHING ELSE other than sea-salt or saline solution. You will irritate it and make it harder to heal.

any questions email me at [e-mail]

Answer 5

I don't know about ear stretching, but i know about piercings. take the piercing out and dip it in rubbing alcohol (or some disinfectant). Also use the disinfectant on your ear (do the same with the other ear). you can do that by applying it to a paper towel or something like that. If it starts to ooze pus, you need to go to a doctor and they will probably prescribe antibiotics. disinfectant them at least once a day