The most common cause is simply increased friction between the ear hole and the earring. This is most easily remedied by putting petroleum jelly on the earring post and then inserting it into the ear. The petroleum jelly will lubricate the earring to reduce friction.
Stretch the earlobe to widen the hole.
To do this, gently tug on the area around the piercing with your thumb and index finger. This should allow your piercing to go right in with little to no pain. Check the front and back of the lobe to see if the hole has widened before inserting the earring.
If your piercing is in the process of closing, you may be able to reinsert the jewelry by stretching the hole in a warm shower, but you should never force it. You can try going to your piercer to get it re-pierced and ask them to attempt a re-insertion first as well; they're more likely to do so successfully.
Leaving earrings out for long periods of time and then putting them back in can significantly irritate your skin which means pain.
Some pain and redness are part of the normal healing process for pierced ears. It can be easy to confuse those with signs of infection. If there's a bump on the back of the ear piercing, it's not necessarily infected. Small bumps called granulomas can sometimes form around the piercing.
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.
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.
Why are My Ears So Sensitive? If your ears get red and itchy when you wear earrings, it most likely means that you are allergic to a metal in the earring posts. The most common metal allergy people have is to nickel. According to experts, repeated exposure can even increase the risk of developing an allergy at any age.
The most important thing you can do in this scenario is avoid using force because trying to push an earring in can turn your healed piercing into an open wound and cause swelling, infection and scarring.
An infected ear piercing can also develop years after a person got the original piercing. Usually, the infections are minor, and people can treat them at home without complications. Touching the piercing too often with dirty hands or not cleaning the area can lead to infections.
Healing. If you're re-pierced in the same spot (using the original inner channel), then you may find you heal a little faster than before due to the fact that the majority of healing had been done the first time around and the amount of trauma to the area is minimal.
Another ear-piercing may close quickly, either overnight or after a couple of days if the stud or jewellery is not held in the hole. The primary reason why this would happen to you is that the pierced ear had not healed completely.
Earring holes usually stay open for at least a day or two once a few months have passed after the original piercing. The holes often stay open for a few weeks or longer if they have been there for several years of earring use. It is unlikely that the holes have completely closed after only a few hours.
If you grab the portion of your ear where the original piercing was located, you should hopefully be able to feel a little knot where the old hole was. This likely means that the surface has closed, but the tunnel in the center of your ear still exists from the first time you got your ears pierced.
The idea of twisting/moving your new piercing daily & doing this frequently throughout the day is outdated & rarely helps the area to heal nicely, in most cases it causes soreness, redness or swelling which leads to longer healing times & can lead to infection.
It's hard to predict how quickly your body will attempt to close a piercing, but as a general rule, the newer it is, the more likely it will close up. For instance: If your piercing is less than a year old, it can close in a few days, and if your piercing is several years old, it can take several weeks.
The general rule is to avoid wearing earrings while sleeping, with the exception of when you get a new piercing. You will need to keep these small studs in place for 6 weeks or so, or until the piercing heals.
The back of traditional butterfly earring slides onto the post, often making the earrings too tight. This is bad for all ear types but especially sensitive ears. Earrings that pinch against the skin of your earlobe trap air and the area becomes moist and prone to infection.
It's a sign of your natural body fluids escaping the newly formed hole, including dead cells and plasma, which then dry when they reach the surface and turn into crust. Make sure to carefully clean and remove this crust. The main cause of crusty earring holes is allergies.
Earring holes can start to smell due to a buildup of sweat, dirt, and bacteria. To prevent this, clean your earrings regularly with soap and water. Additionally, switch out your earrings every few days to give your ears a break and reduce the bacteria that builds up around the hole.
Usually, the first three-four days are when the piercing is tender, there is mild bruising, swelling or a little bleeding. But the complete healing process can take three-four months.
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.
A piercing may not heal as fast if it gets infected or irritated or if scar tissue forms. You may need to see your doctor if your piercing does not seem to be healing.