Q:I have, in my left ear, five lobe piercings. The fifth one keeps getting infected, and I don't know why. I have tried every material, nickelfree, gold, silver, surgical steel, etc, any length and type of piercing, but after a while it always gets infected again. I keep it clean and when it's infected, I disinfect it daily, and the infection will go away, but it always comes back. Do you have any idea s to why this happens and what I can do to make sure the infection will go away forever?

crustified

Let’s whack out the infection check list:

Taken from my Aftercare Guide:

Help! My piercing’s infected! What do I do?

Piercings actually rarely get infected, believe it or not! What many people think is infection, is mild irritation or the actual healing process. Your piercing may well be infected if it exhibits all of there symptoms:

  • VERY hot to touch, does it burn and sting when you touch it? More than it did when you had it pierced?
  • Is it very swollen? More than when you had it pierced?
  • It the jewellery being ‘swallowed’ by the skin?
  • Is there a very foul odour emitted from the piercing site?
  • Is there a discharge? Note: All piercings have a normal, whiteish-yellow discharge called lymph. It crusts to form a yellow substance. This is totally normal. BUT: Is the discharge thick, gloopy, smelly, with a dark yellow, green or brown colour, streaked with red?

Three or more of those listed above can be the result of an infection. What do you do? Well, go straight to your doctor and ask for a broad spectrum antibiotic, this will stop the infection. If the doctor asks you to remove the jewellery, DO NOT !Removing the jewellery allows infectious abscesses to form, which are a lot worse than an infection.

If it’s none of those, it’s just plain irritated. Change to a titanium snug fitting labret stud, and do a chamomile and sea salt soak twice a day.