How To Remove A Bump From Ear Piercing

This article was co-authored by Stephanie Anders. Stephanie Anders is the Owner and Head Piercer at Royal Heritage Tattoo and Piercing, a tattoo and piercing studio located in Los Angeles, California. Stephanie has over 10 years of piercing experience and her client list includes such stars as Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sharon Osbourne.

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HOW

If you recently got a new piercing, seeing a bump in your cartilage can be a bummer. But don’t worry. They’re actually called granulomas, or “healing bumps, ” and they’re pretty common. They’ll usually clear up on their own, but there are a few things you can do to help speed up the healing process. To help you do it, we’ve answered some of the most common questions you have about how you can heal your cartilage piercing bumps.

Piercing Bumps: The Complete Infection And Treatment Guide (2020)

This article was co-authored by Stephanie Anders. Stephanie Anders is the Owner and Head Piercer at Royal Heritage Tattoo and Piercing, a tattoo and piercing studio located in Los Angeles, California. Stephanie has over 10 years of piercing experience and her client list includes such stars as Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sharon Osbourne. This article has been viewed 4, 267, 194 times.

If you want to heal a bump on a cartilage piercing, hold a cotton ball soaked in hot salt water over the bump for about 2 minutes twice a day until the bump heals. You can also add chamomile tea to the salt water to soothe the skin around the piercing. If that doesn’t work and your piercing is fully healed, you can make a compress by pressing down on the bump with breathable medical tape. Regardless of the method you choose, it may take up to 2-3 months for the bump to heal, so be patient! Keep reading for home remedies that may help treat your bump, like tea tree oil or aspirin!When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site.

Eden Stuart is an editor at . She covers all beauty and wellness topics, with a special emphasis on makeup, skincare, and haircare.

How To Get Rid Of A Piercing Bump, According To Dermatologists

Karen L. Hudson is a tattoo artist and contributing writer for . She has been an amateur artist as a hobby since grade school, and served a 12 month tattoo apprenticeship in a tattoo studio.

If you feel a bump on a piercing, there's no need to panic. Even if you're meticulous about your care and serious about the healing process, a piercing bump can rear its head. It's important to understand before you get a piercing that it takes a level of patience and dedication to earn your piercing wings, says pro piercer J. Colby Smith.

Still, the bump needs to be properly treated. To do that, you have to identify the type of bump you're dealing with, where it is located on your body, and how it got there in the first place. After that, simple remedies, time, and patience will help you cure any unsightly swelling. Read on to learn exactly how to care for a piercing bump straight from the experts.

The Risks Of Wearing Earrings: Cysts Caused By Ear Piercings

Piercing bumps can be the body's immune system responding to the wound from the piercing, causing some localized inflammation which, in turn, causes the bump, explains board-certified family nurse practitioner Alexandra Moench, DNP of Schweiger Dermatology Group. She notes while this process is sometimes benign, in some cases, the underlying cause may be something other than inflammation and may need medical intervention to resolve. Some specific types and causes of piercing bumps include:

The bad news: Many things can lead to the formation of a piercing bump. As such, it's important to investigate what actions and aspects of your day-to-day routine could be irritating.

It can be helpful to eliminate any potentially irritating or aggravating factors, including excess trauma or pressure on the piercing, says Garshick. For example: If the piercing is on the ear, avoid using headphones or other objects that may occlude the area.

Ways

Piercing Bump Vs. Keloid

Pro piercer Johnny Pearce tells us common irritants include bumping, snagging, or sleeping on new piercings; airplane travel and cabin pressure; touching the piercing with dirty hands; skincare and beauty products; and jewelry.

Smith recommends checking that your jewelry is a proper fit and allows enough room for swelling. You'll also want to investigate your materials: Are your studs, hoops, or CBRs (captive bead rings) made of surgical stainless steel, surgical titanium, niobium, or Tygon (a surgical plastic)? Some people can develop an allergy to certain types of metals commonly found in piercings, such as nickel, so it may be important to avoid certain types of metals, particularly if you have sensitive skin, says Garshick.

If you're unsure about the state of your jewelry, visit your local trusted professional piercing studio. They can help you pick a more suitable piece of jewelry and may even change it out for you, too, so there's no reason to do it yourself. Once it's in, leave it there until your bump is completely healed. Rotate it occasionally if possible, but only after healing.

How To Remove A Piercing Bump

Cleaning your piercing daily with a mild antibacterialsoap can be the key to eliminating abscesses or cysts. It is important to clean the area regularly with a gentle cleanser, like Dove's Irritation Care Body Wash ($7) or Andalou Naturals' 1000 Roses Gentle Cleansing Foam ($13), to minimize the potential for infection, says Garshick.

Additionally, King recommends salt solutions. These may work to draw out impurities, clean infected areas, and loosen dead skin cells anddried pus. Another popular solution for cleaning new piercings is H2Ocean's piercing aftercare line.

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Mix 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt with water, and soak your piercing blister three times a day until it is completely gone. This can also help to remove discharge from your piercings.

Infected Ear Piercing: Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention

At the end of the day, [piercing bumps] come from irritation, says Smith. The body does not like the foreign object, so we need to gently convince the body to heal around it rather than fight it. I find most people don't take great care of their piercings until there is a problem—then they care a lot. My advice is to be proactive from the start. Keep it clean and be careful with it.

Salt soaks usually treat pesky piercing irritations, but certain bumps may call for an herbal compress, like a chamomile tea bag soaked in hot water. Smith recommends applying a hot compress with a chamomile tea bag to the bump nightly. The heat helps draw out some of the irritation while chamomile helps reduce inflammation, he explains.

If that's not working, he suggests moving on to apple cider vinegar. Tape a small piece of cotton soaked in apple cider vinegar to the bump overnight. This will turn the bump white, then purple, then black, and, eventually, it will fall off like a scab in a few days.

The Dreaded Piercing Bump Vs Keloid

We've also been successfully treating irritation bumps using what I call 'compression therapy, ' which utilizes the gentle but constant compression of a larger titanium disk on the bump, encouraging it to dissipate even more quickly, Pearce says. Note: You'll definitely want to leave this route to the pros and pay a visit to your piercer.

Here's

Hypertrophicscarring, the most common piercing bump, is caused by increased collagen due to trauma in and around the piercing site. It usually occurs in a cartilage piercing (upper ear or nose). If this sounds like what you're dealing with, consult a professional and have them size down your jewelry gauge to avoid undue pressure on the wound. Then, perform a daily, gentle oil massage with rosehip seed oil, which is perfect for various skin types and gives you added hydration benefits to soften the scar tissue over time.

While piercing bumps can be hard to prevent, they can be treated or addressed with different topical creams or ointments, such as Vaseline Healing Ointment ($4) or antibiotic ointments such as a prescription called mupirocin ointment, or topical steroid creams to reduce the inflammation, says Garshick. Moench also recommends NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen to reduce inflammation.

How To Heal Bumps Caused By Piercings In Cartilage

If the infection persists, take a trip to the dermatologist for a shot of cortisone (I recommend this a lot to my actor or model clients as they need a quick fix before they get in front of the camera), says Smith. Adds Garshick: In-office treatments, such as