Aftercare

Aftercare for New Piercings

Caring for your new piercings is very important to ensure they heal quickly and beautifully!

General tips to keep in mind:

• Always wash your hands before touching your piercing!
• Don’t soak your piercings for the first 3-4 weeks. If your piercings are below the neck, avoid baths during this time.
• Don’t cover your piercings with bandaids.
• Make sure that after using your body care products (moisturizers, shampoo, etc) that you clean off any residue that may have transferred onto your piercings.
• Try to avoid sleeping on the side with your new piercings 
• Depending on the piercing and the healing time can take anywhere from 3-12 months. We don’t recommend changing out your jewelry until 6-8 weeks from the piercing appointment time.

Ears, Nipples, Eyebrow, Navel, and Nose:

We recommend using Dexidin, a wound wash spray that helps to ensure the piercings are clean and free of bacteria. Spray both ends of the piercing and with clean hands or a q-tip, gently remove any crusty flakes or dried blood around the piercing. Use this in the morning and at night for 6 weeks or until the piercing is settled and healed.

After cleaning it with Dexiden, we encourage you to use the Dr. Piercing q-tips or NeilMed. These are q-tips filled with medical grade saline that helps accelerate the healing process and reduces the chance of getting bumps and scars. You crack the end with the blue line and let the solution fall to the other end of the q-tip. With that end, clean the front and back of the piercing and wiggle the jewelry slightly so that the saline gets inside and to get some oxygen in the wound as well. Only use these at night.

For nose piercings, only clean the outside of the piercings - do not clean inside the nose. 

As it heals, be sure to avoid:

• Topical alcohol, as it will dry out your piercing
• Swimming in chlorinated water
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Oil-based ointments such as vaseline, polysporin, tea tree oil, hand and body lotion

Oral Piercing: 

Swelling will normally occur during the first 3-7 days. During this time, it is important to drink plenty of cold liquids. Sucking on ice cubes can also help reduce the swelling. We recommend that you use an antiseptic mouth-wash. It’s ideal for the piercing to be cleaned after eating, smoking, or drinking anything but water. Stay away from dairy products and beer for 4 weeks as well as avoiding kissing and oral sex as they can spread bacteria.