Body Piercing Aftercare

PIERCING CARE DETAILS

BODY PIERCING

The most important thing to remember is to keep your hands clean before touching your new piercing. Avoid over-the-counter products such as alcohol, peroxide, bactine or neosporin since these are a bit harsh on the delicate tissue healing around the jewelry.
The only product you should be using to care for your new piercing is a mild soap like “Dr Bronner’s Soap” or “Cetaphil”. Use no more than two times daily in combination with a saline wash after the area becomes "dirty" from products and mask wearing. Apply a small amount of soap to the palm of your hand and combine with warm water to create a lather.
Using your fingertips, apply lather to your piercing and then
thoroughly rinse clean. Let the area air dry or pat dry with a disposable paper towel.
Remember, over-cleaning your piercing can cause more harm than good. Minimal care is best.
Treat your new piercing as you would a cut. Minimize picking, playing with, and touching your new piercing with unclean hands. Similar to a cut, your piercing will scab around the sides and accumulate some discharge (typically a yellowish/white color, which can harden into a crust). This is the sign that your piercing is healing healthily. Do not panic. Picking this away will cause irritation to your piercing, prolong healing time, and leave a more pronounced scar once healed. To safely clean discharge/crusty matter, only use aforementioned soap and warm water to gently wash it away.
While cleaning your new piercing, it is not necessary to rotate or move the jewelry back and forth. If the jewelry does move freely while cleaning, that is fine. Make sure not to force it to move.
For the first 7-10 days after receiving your piercing, avoid exposing it to shared/ public bodies of water (ie: pools, hot tub, ocean, etc...).

ORAL PIERCING

This aftercare applies to the inside of lip piercings, cheek piercings, and tongue piercings.
Just like an external body piercing, make sure to clean your hands before touching your oral piercing.
The only cleaning product that should be used on this area is an alcohol free mouth rinse such as “Tech 2000.” Dilute mouth rinse in a bottle of clean drinking water (2 parts water to 1 part mouth rinse).
For the first 7 days after receiving your piercing, swish some of the diluted mouth rinse around the piercing every time after you eat or drink (other than water). Keep in mind that cigarettes and alcohol contain chemicals and irritants which will increase the amount of swelling in your piercing. Avoid consuming alcohol and cigarettes for at least 7-10 days to minimize swelling and decrease healing time.
It is very important to maintain the appropriate size of your oral piercing. Since these areas have increased amounts of swelling, the initial piercing jewelry is long enough to accommodate for the inflammation. Two weeks after receiving your piercing, we highly recommend a follow-up visit so we may downsize the length or diameter of the jewelry. Doing this will prevent possible tooth and gum damage. Keep in mind that spending a few dollars to downsize your jewelry is going to be a lot less expensive than repairing a damaged tooth.
A helpful tip for soothing and reducing oral swelling is to swish the piercing area with ice cold water for the first few days.
EXTRA INFO
Jewelry should be left in your piercing for approximately 2 months before changing it (other than downsizing oral piercings). For any piercing done with a "stud" (ie: barbell or labret style jewelry), the ends can be changed while leaving the post in the piercing. This is safe to do within the first 2 months.
If you are stretching your piercings, it is recommended to wait 4-6 weeks between each stretch ensuring your body enough time to repair itself and adjust to the size of the new jewelry.
** All healing times are general time frames. Everybody heals at a different rate. Take this into consideration before switching jewelry or stretching piercings. If the piercing itself is tender to the touch or the surrounding skin is pink or dry, give your body a bit more time to heal.

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