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Aftercare
Piercing Aftercare
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Your main concern after getting a new piercing, whether it's
a belly button or an eyebrow piercing, is to keep it from
infection. Here are some important health tips to help ensure
your piercing is clean and heals properly:
- Never touch your piercing with dirty hands or allow anything
dirty to come in contact with it. (So make sure your clothing
and bedding is clean). During piercing aftercare, always
wash your hands before touching or cleaning your piercing.
Avoid excessive touching, even if your hands are clean.
- Don’t allow any bodily fluids to come into contact
with your new piercing. This includes saliva as well as
semen.
- The most convenient place to clean your piercing is in
the shower. Allow the clean water to run over and saturate
the piercing before you start to wash it. This helps to
soften the dry, crusted discharge surrounding the jewelry.
Remove the rest before you wash the piercing with a Q-tip.
- Only use liquid anti-bacterial soap to wash your piercing.
Don’t use any ointments, creams, or astringents on
your new piercing! Apply it to the piercing and the jewelry,
while rotating the jewelry back and forth to make sure the
soap gets inside the piercing. Leave the soap in for 1-2
minutes.
- Now thoroughly rinse by letting the water run over your
piercing, rotating the jewelry again to let the soap come
completely out.
- Pat the piercing (don’t rub it!) with a clean, dry
paper towel. Don’t use a washcloth or towel, because
these are breeding grounds for bacteria.
- For proper piercing aftercare, you need to clean it twice
every day during the duration of the estimated healing period.
- Another helpful cleaning process during piercing aftercare
is a sea salt soak. Here is how to correctly give your piercing
a sea salt soak:
Sea Salt Soaks
1. Wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial or antimicrobial
soap.
2. Place a pinch of sea salt in the bottom of a small disposable
cup.
3. Add hot tap water - as hot as you can stand - to the salt.
Use about 3 ounces of water - which is just over half-full
in a 5 ounce cup.
4. If possible, invert the cup right over the piercing and
allow it to stay there for 5 minutes. This usually works well
for nipple and navel piercings. If you can't create a sufficient
seal against the skin with the cup, then soak a cotton ball
in the salt water solution and apply the cotton ball to the
piercing. When it cools down, throw it away and place a newly
saturated cotton ball on the piercing. Do this for 5 minutes.
5. Rinse the piercing with warm water and dry with a clean
paper towel.
Soaking Tips
- Only sea salt is to be used. Table salt is not acceptable.
Sea salt can be found in many grocery stores and almost
all health food stores.
- If you are not sure about the solution strength, put a
dab on your finger and taste it with the tip of your tongue.
It should be no saltier than a potato chip.
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