Tips to Take Care of New Piercings

Here are a few simple tricks and tips to look after your skin or oral piercings to avoid complications.

After care of new piercings

(Image: iStock)

Piercings have once again become popular among teenagers and adults who want to look more stylish and fashionable. Piercings in areas like ears, lips, belly buttons, and eyebrows are a great way to up your fashion game. Piercings are popular but they can also cause complications if you do not follow certain safety precautions.

The placement of your piercing and the aftercare can affect the piercing making it prone to infection and preventing healing. A piercing is an opening in any part of the body for the insertion of jewelry.

If you do not take care of your piercings, it may cause infections, redness, swelling, gum, and teeth infections in the case of tongue piercings. Extreme cases of infections can even cause blood-borne diseases like Hepatitis and HIV. Thus, below are a few tips to look after your piercings and prevent any infections or damage.

1. In case you have got your tongue, lip, or cheek pierced, use an alcohol-free, antiseptic mouthwash to rinse your mouth after each meal and before you go to bed.

2. You can change your toothbrush after you get a new oral piercing to avoid introducing bacteria into your mouth. After the piercing has healed, you can remove the jewelry and brush it to remove plaque.

3. If you get your skin pierced, clean the site twice a day with soap and water. Wash your hands before cleaning your piercing.

4. In case you get a new piercing, avoid swimming in pools, and stay away from hot tubs, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water while your piercing is in its healing stage.

5. Don't fiddle or touch a new piercing. Avoid twisting the jewelry unless you're cleaning it. Make sure to avoid clothes coming in contact with the piercing to avoid rubbing or friction that can irritate your skin and delay healing.

6. Most piercings take 6 to 8 weeks to heal and it may be longer as well. Thus, avoid changing the jewelry during its healing time, even at night, to keep the hole from closing.