How to treat a piercing infection in the lobe?

Question

I got my ear lobes pierced this summer (around July). So around Saturday I ve been noticing that my ears have been tender to the touch, but I figured it was just an irritation. On Monday, I had suspicions of an infection because by then it was swollen (slightly bigger than my other ear) and it hurt when I touched it (not without touching it). Later on that day, it started to throb without me touching it and I went to my friend and asked him for advice. I was afraid I would have to go to a doctor and he would tell me to take it off, and I cannot handle needles. Like, I fainted when I got my ears pierced and I didn t want to go through that again. 
He told me to immediately take it off after hearing that I haven t taken off my earrings since I got them pierced and have just been using my solution to clean them.  Then he told me to use rubbing alcohol to clean it. I did that Monday afternoon. It bled and only a little bit of white puss came out. There was a lot of blood, like when you pop a really bad pimple, but I eventually got it to stop. So then I put anti-bacterial cream on it. That night, and the next day, I ve been switching between anti-bacterial cream and tea tree oil, cleaning it with alcohol each time I switch treatments. It got better and it even stopped hurting, but it s still inflamed. So I put the earrings on this morning (Wednesday) and it hurt doing so, but I did it. It has been hurting a little bit when I twist the earring and only then. Did I do good?

Brittany · Answer

Soooooooooooooo many things wrong here!

First off, it sounds like you were pierced with a piercing gun. You really need to get to a reputable professional piercer and have implant grade jewelry placed into your piercings to allow for them to heal properly.

If your piercings were infected you'd have a darker yellow/green pus that usually has an odor to it coming out. White discharge is called lymph and is a normal part of the healing process.  Blood was a result of you removing the jewelry of an unhealed piercing. Lobes take 2-3 months to heal when done properly with a hollow needle. Due to the trauma of a piercing gun your piercings will take 4-6 months to heal.

You need to start cleaning them properly as well. Cleaning solution from any jewelry store is going to be too harsh. Alcohol should never touch a piercing as it is also too harsh. Antibacterial creams cause build up and block out oxygen and tea tree oil is also too harsh.

The proper way to clean your piercings is by doing saline soaks twice a day for 5-10 minutes each soak with a sterile gauze pad soaked in a sterile saline spray with no additives which can be found at any grocery store. You should never twist a healing piercing as that drags in crust and bacteria and tears up the inside of the piercing that is trying to heal.

If you do ever have the darker yellow/green discharge then you absolutely need to go to the doctors no matter what you want or don't want. Infections can be serious and home remedies don't solve them.

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How to treat a piercing infection in the lobe?

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