Originally posted by ihaveonlyme i'm not too sure about not taking the piercing out if it's infected. think about it. if the piercing is causing an infection is leaving it in the  best option? no. IF it's infected you need to remove the source of the infection...the jewelry

Actually maybe you should think about that a bit more. You're on the right track, sort of, you want to remove the source of the infection HOWEVER the source of the infection is NOT the jewelery but rather bacteria attacking a fresh open wound. You remove the piercing the holes close over but you then trap that infection inside of you causing an abscess. The best way to treat an infected piercing is antibiotics and you wont have to loose the piercing. If you have an infected piercing see your piercer see what he says sometimes all it is is a minor infection that with enough care will go away on it's own and then sometimes it needs treatment and you need antibiotics. But either way you never want to remove the jewelery until all signs of an infection are gone.

Also sss are very very very good for piercings most people either use too much salt to water ratio or they don't rinse the piercing well enough leaving salt in the wound, letting it recrystalise and cutting up the forming fistula as well as sucking all the moisture out and drying it up. I would say one sss a day and one or two plain warm water soaks as well as the warm water increases blood flow which will aid in healing the piercing. Oh and discontinue using the soap. The thing to remember about the sss is just rinse them very very very well, the thing I always do to rinse the piercing well is just do my soak before I get in the shower and then rinse it well in the shower. Polysporin is shit and wont let the piercing breath or ooze which helps trap infection in and alcohol, hydrogen peroxcide, and even soap are way way way to harsh and will just ry it out and delay healing.

Oh and one more thing oozing and crusties are completely normal as long as it's not some weird off color everything is ok. Some piercings can take a bit more time to start to crust up than others but crusties are very very normal all it is is lymph draining from the open wound as long as the ooze is a clearish color you'll be ok. Everything actually sounds pretty normal really and sounds like you're ok.

you complain that the sea salt method sucked because it took your piercing a year to heal, but nipples do take that long.

remember that different areas of the body take different lengths of time to heal. a tongue piercing can heal in 4 weeks, whereas nipples, navels and cartilage piercings take much longer.

don't jump straight to the conclusion that if it takes longer to heal, your aftercare isn't correct.

Originally posted by sweetkruelty I wouldnt use sea salt soak on such a sensitive area. It will dry and crystalize in the wound.

As long as you aren't heating up the water, and adding salt until no more salt will dissolve, that won't happen.

Originally posted by ihaveonlyme yes sea salt soaks will dry a piercing. i would recommend using the SSS 2 times a week. if it is infected your piercer will usually tell you to try something else and if that doesn't work you may have to take out the piercing. i'm not too sure about not taking the piercing out if it's infected. think about it. if the piercing is causing an infection is leaving it in the  best option? no. IF it's infected you need to remove the source of the infection...the jewelry

A properly mixed SSS will not dry out a piercing, as 1/4tsp to 8oz water is the same salinity as your body. It is called isotonic. The way this particular fluid transfer works is by osmosis through a selectively permeable membrane. In this case the membrane is your cell membrane. If you soak your skin in water that has a higher concentration of salt than your skin has, your cells will want to balance the two concentrations across the membrane, and will cause water to leave your cells. If your mixture is less saline than your skin, your cells will want to absorb some of the water, causing them to bloat.
Soaks can be done every day. I personally suggest taking a nice warm shower every day, for a brand new piercing two sea salt soaks a day, and during the majority of the healing process one soak per day. The wonderful thing about sea salt soaks, is that you can do them AS NEEDED. should you start feeling a bit crusty, as long as the mix is proper, and you don't soak for too long, you will do no harm by doing a SSS, and you can get rid of that gunk.
If you have an infection, removing the jewelry s a very bad idea. What will happen is that you will now have a puncture wound that will heal faster at the skin's surface than underneath it, and underneath the surface you have a bunch of bacteria. White blood cells will go to battle against the bacteria, many will die and leave their valiant little corpses strewn all over the battlefield. Their buddies will come in to get them, but OH NO! Those idiots at central command blocked off the roads! There's bacteria everywhere! They're in the trees man, they're comin' down outta the trees! There's no way out! And what you are left with is a huge bubble of rotting blood cells, sebum, and bacteria with nowhere to go. The scene jut gets worse from there. 



Edited by AlecTrosex - January/07/2009 at 11:01am

Thanks all for the help, great thought s and advice! thanks again!

"If you have an infection, removing the jewelry s a very bad idea. What
will happen is that you will now have a puncture wound that will heal
faster at the skin's surface than underneath it, and underneath the
surface you have a bunch of bacteria. White blood cells will go to
battle against the bacteria, many will die and leave their valiant
little corpses strewn all over the battlefield. Their buddies will come
in to get them, but OH NO! Those idiots at central command blocked off
the roads! There's bacteria everywhere! They're in the trees man,
they're comin' down outta the trees! There's no way out! And what you
are left with is a huge bubble of rotting blood cells, sebum, and
bacteria with nowhere to go. The scene jut gets worse from there."

HaHaHa!!! nicely put AlecTrosex!!!!



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Edited by cindica - January/07/2009 at 2:01pm