Walk into any mall and you’re likely to find one: A cheap costume jewellery and accessories store or booth offering to pierce ears in seconds using a plastic piercing gun at a bargain price. A service plenty of people, many of them teens and young kids, take advantage of on a regular basis.
It may be common practice, but is it really a smart choice to get pierced by a piercing gun? The truth is, even if that gun is being handled by a professional piercer (and not just an employee with no special training working at a mall kiosk), getting a piercing done with anything other than a sterilized needle is not a great idea. Why? Let’s take a closer look at the top three reasons why piercing guns come up short when compared to piercing needles.
Piercing guns require no special skills to use and are super quick, but the negative effects they can cause may last for days, weeks or even be permanent. As we all know, needles — or any object that’s piercing the skin, for that matter — should be completely sterile to minimize the possibility of infection.
Ear Piercing Gun Kit, 233pcs Self Piercing Earrings Set, Nose Navel Lip Ears Piercer Body Piercing Tools, Earring Piercer With Hypoallergenicear Piercing Needle Kit For Salon & Home Blue Gun With Crystal
Unfortunately, piercing guns can only be disinfected, not sterilized. Because they are made of plastic, they cannot be placed in an autoclave — this would simply melt them. The best that can be done is to wipe down the gun’s external surface with alcohol or an antiseptic solution, but even then, the microorganisms inside can continue to thrive and can spread from one customer to another.
As the Association of Professional Piercers [APP] explains, “blood from one client can aerosolize, becoming airborne in microscopic particles, and contaminate the inside of the gun. The next client’s tissue and jewelry may come into contact with these contaminated surfaces.”
This means staph infections and diseases, like hepatitis (which can actually survive on an inanimate object for weeks), may unknowingly be passed on to a client, especially to one who is younger or has a weakened immune system that’s more susceptible to infection.
Ear Nose Piercing Close Up Video Body Electric
This is why “only sterile disposable equipment is suitable for body piercing” and “any procedure that places vulnerable tissue in contact with either non-sterile equipment or jewelry that is not considered medically safe for long-term internal wear” is unsafe. For this very reason “APP members may not use reusable ear piercing guns for any type of piercing procedure.”
Another risk that comes with using a piercing gun is the chance of damaging the tissue around the earlobe. Because the gun forces a blunt earring post to do the piercing, tissue in the area can easily be damaged. Unlike a sharp needle which easily glides through in one smooth motion, a gun uses force and pressure, which can result in swelling, pain or even scarring.
What’s more, if a client has thicker earlobes, if the person doing the piercing makes a mistake or if the gun malfunctions, the earring may not go all the way through on the first try. In this case, the earring will either need to be forced through manually, causing even more trauma, or the client will need to be pierced a second time, “risking contamination of the gun and surrounding environment by blood flow from the original wound, ” the APP points out.
Earlobe Piercing By Doctor
Using the gun on anything other than the earlobe, like on cartilage or structural tissue, can pose even greater complications and should definitely be avoided altogether. As the APP explains, “gun piercings can result in the separation of subcutaneous fascia from cartilage tissue, creating spaces in which fluids collect.” This can result in permanent lumps.
In fact, using a piercing gun on any body part other than the lobe is actually so dangerous that some states have begun pushing laws to ban the use of them on any body part other than the earlobe.
Once the gun has forced the earring into the lobe, another problem may be encountered. As the APP writes, “ear piercing studs are too short for some earlobes and most cartilage”. This means that once the earring is on and the healing begins, the tissue will never actually be allowed to return to its original state and heal as it needs to.
How To Care For Your Piercings To Avoid Skin Infections
“The diminished air and blood circulation in the compressed tissue can lead to prolonged healing, minor complications and scarring.” What’s more, the risk of infection is increased as proper cleaning becomes harder and bacteria can easily become trapped between the tissue and the earring. In extreme cases, the entire piece of stud gun jewelry may actually become embedded in the earlobe, requiring surgical removal.
As you can see, piercing guns come with a long list of negative side effects that simple, sharp and sterile piercing needles simply do not present.
One final note: The APP also strongly urges the wearing of a clean pair of disposable gloves or, better yet, a sterile pair, for every single piercing, no matter if it’s completed with a gun or needle.Piercing guns have been used for years in mall and department stores for piercing people of all ages. Today, though, professional body piercers want to see the gun banned. Why?
Piercing Gun Vs. Needle: Which One Should You Choose?
I talked to a lady (who shall remain nameless) who works in a jewelry boutique at a local mall. She said that she has been doing piercings there now for about 6 months. Her “training” took all of 2 weeks, which consisted of watching others and practicing on a teddy bear. (huh?) Although she claims that in the time she has been piercing she has only gotten one complaint, that does not mean this procedure is entirely safe.
The first concern when it comes to piercing is sterilization. Any kind of procedure which involves contact with blood or bodily fluids requires strict adherence to cross-contamination prevention. Piercing guns are usually made with plastic and cannot be sterilized in an autoclave. Sure, they wipe it with alcohol or antiseptic in between uses, but how sterile is that? It is not unreasonable to guess that in a 2-week training course, these mall piercists are not being taught about infection control and blood-borne pathogens. A quick wipe with a sterile pad is not effective in removing disease-carrying blood.
Some will argue that the piercing gun never comes in contact directly with the customer’s skin. This might be true, but the piercers hands do – if they touch the customers skin and then touch the gun, the gun is now contaminated. Period. And when the gun drives the stud through the flesh, if the skin starts to bleed there is no way of knowing whether or not tiny particles of blood could have been dispersed into the air contaminating everything around it.
Nose Piercings: Types, Process, Aftercare, And Healing
Sterility is just one of the possible problems with gun piercing. Tissue trauma is another. The gun forces a blunt stud through the skin, causing it to literally rip in order to make room for the jewelry. Then, it pinches the back of the jewelry in place snugly against the skin, allowing no way for the new wound to breathe and heal properly. The customer is then told to turn the jewelry a couple times a day, which only further pushes growing bacteria into the wound, causing infection.
True, many customers get pierced with guns and never have any problems with it. But why put yourself at risk when there is a safer, less painful way to go about it?
In comparison to the two-week training of the mall piercer, a professional body piercer goes through extensive training that can last as long as two or three years. They learn about the human body and how piercings affect the circulatory system. They learn how to avoid hitting nerves that can cause severe pain to the customer. Most importantly, they learn about cross-contamanation prevention and how to properly sterilize their instruments. Anything that touches the customer that cannot be autoclaved is thrown away immediately. Work stations are fully disinfected before and after every piercing procedure.
Piercing With A Needle Or A Gun?
The piercing process itself is also much safer and less painful than having a blunt stud forced through your skin. A piercing needle is actually hollow and extremely sharp. It slices through the skin, safely pushing the tissue aside to make room for the jewelry to be inserted. That may not sound too appealing, but it is actually a very quick process and the method is virtually painless for most body parts.
The jewelry that is used in professional piercing shops is also much better for you. Barbells and Captive Beads Rings are specially designed to allow removal of dirt and bacteria effectively during the healing process. Allowing for full movement of the jewelry makes it much easier for you to clean it without counter-productively pushing more bacteria into the pierce. The metals that are used in this jewelry are also better for your skin and less likely to cause a reaction. High-grade Surgical Stainless Steel and even Titanium (which is virtually nickel-free) give you the best chances of an infection and reaction-free piercing.
Although it is true that professional piercing prices run higher than those performed in mall stores,
0 Komentar