Cartilage Piercing & Pain

[Sincerely Yours ♥]

As some of you know, I got my ear cartilage pierced a couple of months ago. I have not had any problems with it until like a week ago. It keeps crusting & it hurts to twist the earring at all. Every time I notice it's crusted, I clean it & then it's fine, but it's starting to get more painful. I'm just wondering if this is normal or if it's starting to get infected? My sister says hers crusted over as well.

[dejaentendu0]

When I had mine, mine never crusted over months after having it...
I ended up taking mine out because it kept getting infected over and over again. I have a bump of scar tissue in the back of my ear from mine.
They can be really tricky to keep from infection sometimes.

Make sure you're cleaning it well and if it's not an open wound anymore, maybe apply some antibiotic creme around the area? Make sure the jewelry itself is clean too, especially.
If worse comes to worse and it's STILL really painful, maybe see a doctor for their opinion?

[Nicole!]

Make sure you aren't cleaning it more than 3 times a day, that can actually be bad for it. Also, don't twist the earring. That could be opening up the wound and getting the crusties in there, so just leave it alone. I also recommend doing sea salt soaks, just put about a teaspoon of pure sea salt (no iodine) into a glass of water and soak your ear in it for about 5 minutes. It really helps clean the piercing and reduces pain.

[Sincerely Yours ♥]

Originally Posted by Melody

Make sure you aren't cleaning it more than 3 times a day, that can actually be bad for it. Also, don't twist the earring. That could be opening up the wound and getting the crusties in there, so just leave it alone. I also recommend doing sea salt soaks, just put about a teaspoon of pure sea salt (no iodine) into a glass of water and soak your ear in it for about 5 minutes. It really helps clean the piercing and reduces pain.

I had actually used salt water like right before you posted this. I've also stopped touching the earring as much & it definitely feels a lot better!

Thanks for the advice, ladies!

[Ngikhona]

One thing to keep in mind is that everyone heals differently and some cartilage piercings can take up to a year to heal properly. Every lobe piercing I got was supposed to heal in 3 months or whatever, and I would say that they didn't heal until at least 6 months. People just heal differently, so try to baby the piercing as much as you can with salt rinses and not touching it and keeping your hair away from it and you should be fine.