How To Remove Piercing Pain

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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.

When you have an infected piercing, your first thought might be to take your jewelry out. While that might seem like the best thing to do, it's best to leave this to your doctor. If your piercing is actually infected, and you remove the jewelry on your own, you may spread the bacteria. Instead, see a dermatologist, who will likely swab the area for a culture and start a course of topical and/or oral antibiotics to treat the infected skin piercing. Your derm will likely also want to monitor the area for potential abscess formation throughout your treatment plan. To learn more, we spoke to two dermatologists, Y. Claire Chang and Alicia Zalka.

How To Treat An Infected Ear Piercing

Mild infections can be treated easily enough at home. If it's just a little irritated, slightly red or warm, you can try a few things to clear it up on your own:

The first thing is to determine if your piercing is actually infected. A piercing may be infected if you notice redness, swelling, pain or tenderness, warmth, crusting, and yellow drainage around the piercing site, says Chang. More severe infections can lead to spreading redness/swelling, fevers, chills, and swollen lymph nodes.

My experience is that bellybutton piercings are the ones most at risk for infections. The second most common would be nose piercings, says Zalka.

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If you have a nickel sensitivity, you may not be able to handle jewelry made of nickel-laden metals. It’s best to see your dermatologist or other health care provider as an infection can be mistaken for an allergic reaction and vice versa, says Zalka. Some people react to the metal in the piercing object. This can happen to those with a nickel allergy. Silver, gold, and steel may still have small amounts of nickel in them; enough to bother someone who's very sensitive. In this case, niobium or titanium jewelry may be necessary. You may also have allergic reactions to other kinds of metals, even if they don't contain nickel. Always consider the jewelry first if you're having a problem, and have it changed to a high-quality metal if you think that could be the cause.

An infection does not necessarily mean that you need to remove the jewelry and jump ship from your new piercing. Many infections will clear up with some extra care, and you can keep your new jewelry. Minor infections can be managed conservatively with saltwater or sterile saline soaks, and it is not necessary to remove the jewelry, says Chang.

It can be tempting to want to turn, twist, and touch the infected piercing in an effort to keep the hole from closing up. Chang warns, Avoid excessively touching or manipulating the infected site as this can worsen the irritation and inflammation. Only manipulate the piercing site when you are cleaning it, otherwise, leave it alone to heal.

Pierced Ear Infections: Symptoms, Causes And Treatments

Minor infections can often be treated at home, but it's important to make sure you are doing so with clean hands. Make sure you do not have a fever or swollen lymph nodes, which suggests you should seek a doctor for further evaluation, notes Chang. Avoid excessively touching or manipulating the infected site as this can worsen the irritation and inflammation. If touching the area, make sure to wash your hands thoroughly beforehand. Soap and water, please!

If you don't think the jewelry is the cause, then the source of the infection is probably bacterial. The way to fix that is to kill and/or clear the bacteria. Try cleaning the area twice a day and doing sea salt soaks twice a day; basically treating it like a brand new piercing. The heat and the salt are both claimed to help draw out pus and other fluids that may contain bacteria. Hopefully, following that regimen for a few days will clear up an infection in its early stages. You can do this with a q-tip and sterile saline or saltwater (distilled water combined with salt). Remember to clean both the front and back of the earlobe.

Avoid alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to the affected area, as these can further irritate the skin and slow down the healing process, says Chang.

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Applying a topical antibiotic ointment recommended by a dermatologist can be a great way to help heal the infected area. After cleaning, gently pat the area dry and pat a small amount of the ointment over the infected area.

If the piercing is hot to the touch and painful, you can cleanse by applying a warm-water compress. You can do this right at home by taking a washcloth, running it under warm water, and then applying directly to the infected site. Just make sure that the cloth is not burning hot. Keep the compress on for 20-30 minutes and repeat as necessary. It’s healed when the skin returns to normal color and is no longer painful or swollen and there is no longer any yellow discharge, says Zalka.

More serious infections, however, can lead to other serious problems, so if you are oozing thick or green pus, or if the area is seriously swollen and hot to the touch, you should not attempt to clear the infection on your own. Improvement in redness, warmth, pain, and drainage suggests that the infected site is healed. If you develop an abscess, spreading infection, fever, chill, or malaise, please notify your board-certified physician for evaluation and treatment, says Chang.

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Advanced infections may require jewelry removal and antibiotic treatment, so please see your doctor. Regardless of the stage of the infection's severity, dermatologists agree that

Skin infections should be evaluated and treated professionally (usually with something bacterial, bacteriostatic, or bactericidal). Remember, only your doctor can assess how severe your infection is and determine the best course of treatment.

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

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.

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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.

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

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