From simple ear piercings to navel piercings, there is a variety of body piercings that you can opt for. However, despite the piercing you opt for, there’s one thing for certain – you will have to care for it! Piercings heal by themselves, but you need to care for them to ensure that nothing hinders the healing process.
Here are some tips to take care of your body piercing.
Do Your Research Before You Get Your Piercings
The first tip for caring for your piercing is to carry out research before getting one. Piercings aren’t easy to handle so you should have a clear picture of what you are getting yourself into. Make sure that you know about the placement, the healing time, the pain, and the aftercare process before you opt for one.
Don’t Touch Your Piercings
Let’s not forget that a piercing is basically a hole in your body that can easily be infected. Never touch your piercing with dirty hands! You can end up transferring germs onto your piercing that can cause a serious infection. This doesn’t mean that you can’t touch your piercing altogether. You just need to ensure that your hands are clean and sanitized before you proceed to touch it. This applies mainly during the healing process. You are free to touch your piercing after it has healed completely.
Clean Your Piercing with Saline
You need to establish a daily cleansing routine for your piercing. This is to ensure that your piercing remains germ and infection-free. For this purpose, you need to take a gauze pad and simply dip it in a saline solution. You should then wash your hands and hold the pad on the piercing site for at least 10 to 15 minutes. This will help loosen the dried crusts and keep your piercing infection-free.
Avoid Harsh Cleansers
Avoid using any harsh cleansers on your piercing. Many people choose to use rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the piercing. However, this often ends up behaving harshly with the surrounding skin and also the new cells inside the piercing. For instance, an ear lobe piercing takes around two months to heal so you shouldn’t use any harsh cleanser on it till then.
Instead of a harsh cleanser, you should use petroleum jelly. It is a rather soothing substance that will help reduce scabs while protecting your piercing from bacteria.
Keep Your Piercing Safe from Chemicals
This might be a big ask, but you need to protect your piercing from chemicals. This includes shampoos, soaps, gels, etc. These chemical-based substances can get near your piercing and interfere with the tissue, which naturally hinders the healing process.
Go to the Doctor if You Have an Infection
If you still suffer from an infection despite taking care of your piercing, you should immediately visit the doctor. Infection signs are awfully prominent, they include, redness, swelling, severe pain, fever, etc. The point is to get your infection treated as soon as possible. If you don’t address it timely, you will have to take off your jewelry and your piercing will close.
All in all, these were some tips to take care of your body piercing. Even though piercing aftercare doesn’t speed up the healing process, it does ensure that your piercing looks great!
