3Now that you have a body piercing, how do you take care of it? Unfortunately, endless numbers of people have a bad body piercing experience because they simply didn’t have the know-how to take good care of it afterwards. Good aftercare is crucial to your health when it comes to body piercing, because it helps prevent infection and scarring. Hopefully your professionally-trained piercer gave you a list of aftercare instructions. Just in case, though, here are some important things to keep in mind when it comes to care of your body piercing.
- Good personal hygiene is critical, and even if your piercer used sterile techniques on you, there's still a chance of an infection developing just from the bacteria we all carry on our skin. If you handle your piercing without washing your hands first, chances are fair that you could transmit something unpleasant into the area. Different piercing take various lengths of time to heal, from just a few weeks to months, so that means you'll need to take good care of your piercing for a while. Hand-washing is important both before and after handling your piercing. To wash your piercing, use either antibacterial soap or sea salt. Don't use rubbing alcohol or antibiotic creams. Professional piercers report that clients have complications from skin breakdowns when using these on open wounds.In addition to basic rules of cleanliness, remember that a piercing is technically an open wound and needs to be treated gently. Don't wear clothing that's going to chafe against it and cause irritation. A belly-button piercing is as good a time as any to invest in a pair of low-rise jeans, if you don't already have any. Be sure not to bang your piercing against anything and if you've had genital or nipple piercing done, be extra cautious during sexual activity for those first few months.A couple of times a week or more, whatever is comfortable for you, spin or rotate your body jewelry while you're cleaning it. This will help get the sea salt or antibacterial soap inside the piercing, which helps it to heal faster and ultimately leads to a better long-term result. In addition, it helps to cut down on scabbing if you spin or rotate the piercing during the healing phase.Make sure you leave your starter jewelry in place until the piercing has healed completely. As your body begins to heal, a thin layer of skin forms between the jewelry and the wound. If you remove the jewelry too soon, there's a significant risk of opening the wound back up again. A good thing to keep in mind is that if you can pull gently on your jewelry or play with it and feel no discomfort or tenderness, you may be able to consider changing it.While you're healing, watch out for signs of infection such as pain, redness, swelling or drainage from the wound. If you think you've gotten an infection, contact your piercer immediately for instructions. He or she may recommend you see a physician for antibiotic treatment. Ultimately, if you treat your piercing well now, you'll be able to enjoy it for a long time.
