How Do I Heal An Infected Cartilage Piercing

A new ear piercing is an open wound that can take several weeks to fully heal. During that time, any bacteria that enter the wound can lead to infection. Taking good care of your piercing is key to preventing infection.

An ear piercing is a hole through your earlobe or the cartilage in your middle or upper ear. Ear piercing infections may be red, swollen, sore, warm, itchy or tender. Sometimes, piercings ooze blood or white, yellow or green pus.

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A new piercing is an open wound that can take several weeks to fully heal. During that time, any bacteria that enter the wound can lead to infection.

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Your upper ear is cartilage, a thick, stiff tissue with less blood flow. Piercings in your upper ear are more likely to become infected, and infections in your upper ear are sometimes serious.

Millions of people get their ears pierced every year, and most of them have no serious complications. Mild irritation and infections are common, however, for new piercings. In most cases, infections aren’t serious and clear up quickly.

Some pain and redness are part of the normal healing process for pierced ears. It can be easy to confuse those with signs of infection.

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If there’s a bump on the back of the ear piercing, it’s not necessarily infected. Small bumps called granulomas can sometimes form around the piercing. These bumps are trapped fluid that you can treat by compressing them with warm water.

If bacteria get into a new piercing, it can lead to infection. You may expose your new piercing to harmful bacteria by:

Many things can increase your risk of getting an infection from an ear piercing. Certain health conditions can affect your body’s immune system and your ability to fight infection. These conditions include:

How To Treat An Infected Ear Piercinghellogiggles

Upper ear piercings are more likely to get infected. Left untreated, these infections can lead to a condition known as perichondritis. An infection can also spread into your body (systemic infection).

If you see signs of an infected cartilage piercing, you should contact a healthcare provider. The provider can assess the severity of the infection.

A healthcare provider can tell you what to do for an infected ear piercing. They may recommend a variety of treatments to help heal an infected ear piercing. Ear piercing infection treatment may include:

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With good care, most infections clear up within a few days. If your infected ear piercing isn’t improving, you should see a healthcare provider.

Getting your ears pierced is most often a safe, simple procedure. Be sure to go to an experienced piercer who practices proper hygiene. Keep your new piercings clean, and don’t remove your earrings until your piercings have healed completely. Be patient — by preventing an infection now, you can enjoy your healthy piercings for years to come.

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. PolicyThe possibility of infection is something your piercer should always discuss with you when youget your cartilage pierced. While cartilage piercing infections are generally mild, they can cause illness and permanent disfigurement to the area if you don’t seek treatment fast enough.

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To keep your cartilage piercing looking its best, and to avoid long-term complications that could require serious antibiotics, follow our advice on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of both mild and serious cartilage piercing infections.

How

A cartilage piercing infection occurs when bacteria enter the opening of your new piercing. Infections typically crop up early in the healing process, when the wound from the piercing is still open.

Although minor redness, swelling and soreness can be expected after getting a cartilage piercing, more serious signs of infection can include intense pain, burning sensations, green or yellow discharge, or a bad odor coming from the piercing site.

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Of course, it can take quite a while for a cartilage piercing to fully heal, a minimum of three months and usually more, so the likelihood of infection remains for a longer period of time when compared to ear lobe piercings or piercings in other fleshy areas.

Unlike infections in other areas, an infected ear piercing can spread from the surface down into the cartilage itself. This means it can cause further complications and become difficult to treat.

Infections can also be the reason for thatunsightly bump that formsaround the site of the piercing sometimes, although a bump isn’t always the sign of an infection (it could be a keloid scar).

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Sometimes, there’s nothing you could have done differently to stop an infection. Bacteria are sneaky little pests. But most of the time, there is a preventable cause behind a cartilage piercing infection. Here are the top reasons for an infection taking hold:

Reputable piercers make sure that everything used in the piercing process, such as the piercing needle, is clean andsterilized. They’ll also make sure they have clean hands or wear gloves. Anything (objects or body parts) that can harbor bacteria can be a potential cause of infection.

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More experienced professionals do tend to charge more for their work, but this small additionalcostis completely worth it– you only get one body after all so take care of it.

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That goes for your own hands, too. And the hands of your friends. Keep a no-touching rule for your piercings, and you’ll be much less likely to pick up aninfection. Any time you need to clean your new cartilage piercing, wash your hands first to reduce infection risk.

When you get your cartilage pierced, your piercer should give you instructions onhow to clean and take care of the wound while it heals.

Follow what they say, and use the products they suggest. You should be using saline, or sea salt solution to soak your piercing every day, and you can wash the jewelry with small amountof soap and water, before rinsing well.

How Do You Treat An Infected Cartilage Piercing?

The best aftercare product I’ve personally used is the After Inked Piercing Aftercare Spray. Not only is it vegan, but it’s also completely alcohol and additive-free. The solution works well on all skin types including sensitive skin, and it comes in a generously-sized mist-spraying bottle for easy application. When using it from the very start of the healing process, the spray helps to decrease healing times and aims to eliminate any lingering pain or soreness.​

Bacteriais always somewhat present. There’s bacteria on your ear right now; but most of the time these small amounts of non-harmful bacteria don’t cause a problem. That is, unless something else irritates your piercing, making you more susceptible to developing an infection.

Using cheap jewelry is one of those things that can cause irritation or an allergic reaction, and when your ear is in a vulnerable state, it struggles to fight off otherwise normal levels of bacteria. Make sure that any new jewelry you get is made of gold, steel, or titanium to minimize any risk of irritation. These metals are less likely to cause reactions.

Infected

What Does An Infected Ear Piercing Look Like?

As with wearing cheap jewelry, anything that irritates the pierced area makes it more susceptible to infection. When your body is dealing with an injury, irritation, or an allergic reaction, it is less able to deal with other issues like bacteria infiltration.

To reduce your infection risk, don’t sleep on a new piercing, and take precautions when playing sports or engaging in other rough activities, such as dancing at concerts, so that your cartilage piercing doesn’t get bumped or pulled.

You don’t want to wait until your cartilage piercing is severely infected before commencing treatment, as this increases the chance that you’ll need to seek medical intervention. If you catch the infection early, there’s no reason why you can’t treat it effectively at home.

Local Infection Without Granuloma After Helix Piercing. Result One Week...

When your skin looks red andis sore to the touch, that’s a sign of inflammation. If this occurs, your skin may also feel warm or hot. This is because an elevated body temperature helps certain types of immune cells to work better when fighting bacteria and viruses.

Note that your skin is going to be red and tender for the first couple of days after getting a new piercing, and that’s just a part of the normal healing process. However, if the initial redness passes and then comes back, or if the piercing remains red for longer than just a few days, you should treat it as though it’s infected.

A healing cartilage piercing may drain a bit of clear fluid and form a crust, which is not a cause for alarm. On the other hand, if the discharge coming from the piercing is yellowish or green and/or smells bad, then it is pus, which a sign of infection.

Infected Cartilage Piercing

Of course, there may be a bit of blood on the first day or two after receiving a new piercing; you have a wound in your ear, after all. Despite this, when everything is going smoothly, the bleeding should clear up relatively quickly. If your piercing continues to bleed after a few days, it could be infected.

How

The first thing to know about treating an infected ear piercing is that you should not remove the earring. Keeping your jewelry in place actually helps the piercing to drain, which needs to happen in order for your body