Ear Cartilage Piercings

Summary

• Healing Time 3 - 12 months, depending on the amount of cartilage pierced
• Do not touch your piercing with unwashed hands
• Do not let others touch it while it is healing
• Clean your healing piercing once a day only, using antibacterial soap
• Wash and dry your hair before piercing, and frequently thereafter
• Never use alcohol swabs, Betadine, hydrogen peroxide or tea tree oil to clean your piercing
• Pain, redness and unusual discharge may be due to infection. Consult your piercer or a physician if you develop any of these symptoms
• Take vitamin C and zinc to maximise your healing
• Wait till your piercing is healed before changing jewelry yourself

Daily Care Routine

• Do not touch your piercing unless you are cleaning it. Unwashed hands carry bacteria and your piercing is a point where these bacteria can penetrate below your skin and cause an infection.
• While healing, your piercing will need to be cleaned once daily.
• Cleaning more often than this will harm your piercing.
• You will need to use an antibacterial soap that contains either chloroxylenol or triclosan (e.g. Dettol Liquid Soap).

  The step-by-step procedure is:

1. Wash your hands with antibacterial soap.
2. Wet the piercing with plain water.
3. Put a few drops of antibacterial soap on the piercing and work them into a lather with a cotton bud.
4. Try to loosen any crusted discharge and float it off the jewelry and your skin with the cotton bud.
5. Leave the antibacterial soap on the piercing for two minutes while rotating the jewelry back and forth, allowing the disinfectant to penetrate the piercing.
6. Rinse with water and air dry thoroughly. Do not dry with a towel, which may carry bacteria.

Piercing Options and Jewelry Choices

• Antitragus
  
  • The extrusive ridge of cartilage inferior and lateral to the ear canal, opposite the tragus.
  • Straight or curved barbells are preferable to rings.

   

• Conch (also known as a Shell piercing)
  
  • That part of the ear formimg a funnel leading into the ear canal
  • Straight barbells, labret studs are suitableinitially. When healed rings can be used but must be large enough to sit comfortably around the rim of the ear.

   

• Daith
  
  • This piercing is vertical, like the rook.

   

• Helix and Top Ear
  
  • The commonest cartilage piercing. There is no scientific evidence that piercing guns have any higher or lower rate of infection or problems with helix piercings.
  • Can be very annoying for the first few weeks when sleeping.
  • Prone to keloid formation at the posterior surface of the ear especially with rings. For this reason I recommend studs as sold for piercing guns or a labret stud.

   

• Rook and Snug
  
  • A piercing through the antihelix, the ridge above the daith ridge.
  • The "rook" is a vertical piercing.
  • The "snug" is a horizontal piercing .
  • Some people have a poorly defined anti-helix and this piercing is not possible
  • A ring is the most suitable jewelry.
  • Prone to migration and rejection, more so than other ear cartilage piercings.

   

• Tragus
  
  • Healing Time 6 - 12 months
  • The prominence of cartilage in front of the opening of the ear canal.
  • Suitable for both captured bead rings and bar bells. It is probably easier to clean a ring.
  • Interferes with putting your finger in your ear!

   

• Vertical Lobe
  
  • Healing Time 3 - 6 months
  • This is the only lobe piercing that passes through cartilage.
  • Straight barbells are the only jewelry that will not distort the shape of the lobe.

Suitable Types:

1. Captured bead rings
   Rings are much cheaper than barbells. Special pliers may be required to remove or replace the bead, especially for thicker gauge jewelry.
   Avoid sleepers as the sharp edges at the joint may damage your piercing.
2. Barbells
   Either choose internally threaded barbells or, if the bar is externally threaded, be sure that no threads are exposed.
3. StudsStuds can work very well providing there is sufficient room to exose the piercing when cleaning.

Suitable Materials:
Surgical Stainless Steel, 18 carat gold, titanium, niobium, PTFE.
Do not use 9 carat gold, silver (which can stain the tissues permanently), or gold plated jewelry in new piercings. In a healing cartilage piercing the gold plating will wear off the jewelry before the piercing is healed. This is not such a problem in healed piercings.

Changing Jewelry:
You may damage your piercing by changing jewelry during the healing period. This is best done by a professional piercer. Once a piercing is healed you can change the jewelry yourself.

Other Issues

• Bacterial Infections
  
  1. Prevention
     Disinfect, wash or avoid the things in your daily life that can carry bacteria:
     • Telephone handsets
     • Mobile phones
     • Hearing aids
     • Stethoscopes
     • Pens and pencils
     • Fingers
     • Scarves, hats, etc
     • Pillowcases
     • Sheets.
  2. Symptoms
     Include increased pain, increased redness and an increase in the amount and thickness of the discharge. The infected discharge is usually thick and yellow, green or grey and may have an unusual odour. Consult with your physician or piercer and do not remove the jewelry until you seek advice. Removing the jewelry may prevent pus draining and cause an abscess to form.
  3. Chondritis
     Infection of cartilage. This is very difficult to treat and sometimes requires plastic surgery for cure. Consult a physician.
• Cleaning Agents
  Never use alcohol swabs, Betadine, chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, methylated spirit, or tea tree oil to clean your piercing. These do kill bacteria but they also destroy your healing flesh. The killed flesh then becomes easily infected.
• Hair
  When your hair touches your jewelry it can transfer bacteria into your piercing. Before your piercing procedure you should wash and dry your hair. Consider tying your hair back or cutting your hair if it is touching your jewelry.
• Keloids
  Helix piercings are prone to keloid formation,and much more so when a piercing gun is used.
• Lavender Oil
  This essential oil lubricates the piercing and is reputed to reduce scar tissue and prevent tightening. It must be used in its dilute form, a drop applied to each side of the piercing with a cotton bud, the excess removed, and then the jewelry moved back and forth through the piercing. The correct dilution is 10 drops lavender oil in 15mls grapeseed or sweet almond oil.
• Piercing Guns
  Piercing guns are suitable for use along the helix of the ear as well as on the lobes. The manufacturers are very specific that they are not to be used on other parts of the ear.
• Sleeping
  Helix piercings in particular are prone to irritation when slept on.
• Smoking
  
  1. Smoking slows healing by suppressing your immune system and blood circulation to the skin.
  2. Smoking will increase the healing time of cartilage piercings by months.
• Swimming
  Swimming is not prohibited while your piercing is healing, but you should only swim for short periods in pools that are thoroughly chlorine- or ozone-treated. If you swim in the ocean or waterways, do not swim after heavy rain since storm water run-off often contains bacteria and parasites.
• Viral Infections
  Viruses such as Hepatitis A, B, and C, and HIV can penetrate a piercing that has not healed. These viruses may be present in the blood, saliva, semen, sweat and vaginal secretions of infected persons. Until your piercing has healed avoid any other person's bodily fluids contacting your piercing. Practice safe aural sex!
• Vitamins
  Studies have shown that vitamin C and zinc promote wound healing. Aim for about 2000-3000 mg vitamin C and 100 mg zinc daily. Note that these amounts are not available in multivitamin tablets. Ask at your pharmacist or health-food store for advice on suitable products. If you are taking any medications, ask your pharmacist to make sure there are no interactions between them and the vitamin C and zinc you intend to take. For example, vitamin C can delay the absorption of the contraceptive pill - they should be taken at different times.