It's normal to have some redness, swelling or pain for a couple of days after getting your ears pierced. But your ears should look and feel better each day. If you find that your ears do great and then suddenly start to become red, inflamed or crusty a week or two later, that's usually a sign of infection.
It is important to note that your piercing may be tender or painful for up to 3-5 days after the procedure was performed. This is normal. Sleeping directly on your ears or side may prolong the tenderness due to the pressure on the piercing site.
Most ear piercing pain – including redness, swollen ear lobes or cartilage and soreness – typically lasts anywhere from a day or two, to around a week after your piercing session. Most side effects will subside within 3-5 days.
The skin around a new piercing might be swollen, red and tender for a few days. It might bleed slightly. If the swelling, redness and bleeding last longer than a few days, contact your doctor.
"Surprisingly, piercing infections do not typically happen until three to seven days after the initial piercing, sometimes more," Dr. Mankarious says. "Bacteria need time to proliferate."
Piercing rejection is not very common, but it does happen. Rejection most common in the first few weeks to months after getting a piercing.
Signs of an infection
Your piercing might be infected if: the area around it is swollen, painful, hot, very red or dark (depending on your skin colour) there's blood or pus coming out of it – pus can be white, green or yellow. you feel hot or shivery or generally unwell.
Gently pat dry the affected area with clean gauze or a tissue. Then apply a small amount of an over-the-counter antibiotic cream (Neosporin, bacitracin, others), as directed on the product label. Turn the piercing jewelry a few times to prevent it from sticking to the skin.
Placing a clean ice pack or a cold compress on a new piercing is a simple way to help relieve ear-piercing pain and reduce swelling. Use ice on the fresh piercing for no more than 15-20 minutes at a time for the first few days after getting your new ear piercing.
A piercing rejection usually happens gradually. Symptoms tend to appear several days or weeks before the body finally pushes the jewelry out of the skin in a process called migration.
When getting a new lobe piercing, it's important to sleep with your earrings on for at least the first few months of the healing period. The standard lobe piercing generally ranks at a relatively low pain level on the pain scale and should take around 4-6 months to fully heal.
The normal stages of healing are; first Inflammation, then epithelialization and angiogenesis and then the maturation stage. These stages are not separate but overlap slightly and may be happening at the same time. Inflammation is the body's response to harmful stimuli such as damaged cells caused by the piercing.
Avoid baths, hot tubs, swimming pools, saunas, lakes, etc. for the first three weeks after being pierced as they contain bacteria which can increase the risk of infection.
There's no reason to rotate your piercing. You could damage the delicate, healing skin by rotating the jewelry. In the past, rotating the jewelry was recommended, but it has been found to cause damage that can lead to infection and scarring. For happy healing, NEVER rotate your body jewelry.
The single best thing you can do for your piercing is to keep up a regular regimen of salt water soaks. These flush out the piercing, help to draw out discharge, stimulate blood circulation, and soothe irritations. We strongly suggest soaking your piercing at least twice a day—more often if healing is difficult.
To avoid red lumps, NEVER fiddle with the piercing or knock it. If you do acquire a lump then leaving it completely alone is the best option, not cleaning it multiple times a day which just aggravates it even further. OVER CLEANING WILL CAUSE INFECTION !
When you have an infected piercing, your first thought might be to take your jewelry out. While that might seem like the best thing to do, it's best to leave this to your doctor. If your piercing is actually infected, and you remove the jewelry on your own, you may spread the bacteria.
What are the potential signs of an infected ear piercing? Your ear piercing might throb right after you have it done, and there's a chance there will be a little bit of fluid, blood, or discharge oozing from the area within the first couple of days too.
It stops hurting – piercings are often only tender to touch, or if they are knocked, in the first couple of weeks. If your piercing “hurts” most of the time there might be something wrong, so it is a good idea to see your Piercer and have it looked at.
Just like infections, an irritated piercing can cause pain, swelling and redness. But it shouldn't cause the horrible discharge that comes with an infection. Other symptoms of irritation include a solid (non-fluid filled) lump around the hole or some slight peeling.
If your doctor told you how to care for your infected piercing, follow your doctor's instructions. If you did not get instructions, follow this general advice: Wash the area with a mild soap and water 2 times a day. Don't use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, which can slow healing.