Two days ago I got a second piercing (just in the fleshy part of my earlobes, nothing weird). The first time I had my ears pierced was 40 years ago, so when I was given different after-care instructions from the first time, I wasn’t overly surprised.
The piercing was done with a surgical steel needle (not a gun as in my first piercing). The woman who did it gave pretty much the directions I would expect - clean 3 times/day with antibacterial soap, don’t touch your ears except for the cleaning, etc. But the part that surprised me was that she said NOT to twist the studs.
I looked up care of new ear piercings on the internet and while there are a zillion sites and I can’t check them all, the ones I looked at do say to twist the studs.
My daughter got her ears pierced a few weeks ago. It was at Claire’s, with a piercing gun. The instructions did include twisting of the studs. So she’s been twisting them and her ears have been doing fine.*
*Apart from the incident about a week after the piercing when we were at the local collegiate baseball game and she lost an earring after snagging it on the bounce house netting. Fortunately I was wearing studs and was able to put one in her ear. Crisis averted, except for the mismatching studs.
I always thought the twisting was to help form the scar tissue that kept the hole from closing, and keeps the earring from being “healed in” and therefore more or less permanent. I was told to twist mine, but then that was about 30 years ago, so my info is also pretty dated.
I can’t think of any reason not to twist them, so I’d say do it.
C’mon, baby, let’s do the Twist!!
Twisting will delay healing and increase the risk of introducing bacteria and causing infection. You were smart to get a needle piercing instead of a gun piercing, which basically rips a hole in your ear.
Don’t twist. Just don’t. We used to think twisting was necessary to keep the post from sticking to the wound. We were wrong. Especially if you had it done by needle and got a good quality surgical steel. That’s the same steel they use in joint replacements - it’s perfectly unsticky without twisting.
Twisting, as **AnaMen **says, increases the risk of bacterial infection, ripping open healing skin and delaying wound healing. It rebruises the area every time you twist it, increasing inflammation and the formation of thick scar tissue and, again, delaying healing.
Good to know! I have to admit, I have not been vigilant in reminding her to clean/twist her piercings, so maybe my neglect has actually played in her favor.
If you ever have another ear piercing request (from her or another sibling), please please please so NOT go to Claire’s/The Icing/any store that uses a piercing gun. Go to a place that uses a needle, not gun.* professional piercers use an extremely sharp, hollow-point needle, which is immediately safely disposed of in a biohazard container.
Why:
[ul]
[li] They always make contact with the piercee’s ear.[/li]
[li] It’s not possible to sterilize guns between uses. The gun body is plastic and cannot go into an autoclave.[/li]
[li] These stores don’t hire professional piercers; they use the regular workers. They’ll get shown how to mark the spots with a ballpoint pen and how to use the gun. If they’re lucky, they might be able to practice a bit on a stuffed animal (no, really).[/li]
[li] Guns pierce the ear with the ear stud itself. The tips are very, very blunt (even if there’s a little point, that’s like a tree trunk compared to a piercing needle), so they pierce by brute force – essentially ripping and tearing the ear tissue as it goes through. Piercing needles, on the other hand, neatly slice through the tissue, causing much less trauma AND pain.[/li]
[li] Professional piercers train for years. In addition to the actual piercing work, they know how to prevent cross-contamination, how to sterilize instruments and disinfect work spaces and other things like where NOT to pierce to avoid piercing through a nerve. :: shiver ::[/li]
[li] Barbells and CBRs (captive bead rings) are designed to be easily cleaned and are MUCH less likely to cause an allergic reaction to the metal. Gun studs’ backs (especially butterfly backs) are a great place for blood, dirt, bacteria, etc. to accumulate and not be fully cleaned away. And as someone who is allergic to nickel, I can’t even wear “sensitive ears” or “nickel free” earrings anymore; After a couple hours the piercing area will become tender and inflamed and I will have a small bit of pus to remove (even if I cleaned my hands and ears, soaked the earrings in alcohol, etc). But my CBRs? No problems whatsoever.[/li]
[/ul]
