Ear Piercing Infection
How to Deal With and Prevent a Painful Piercing Infection
3
When it comes to caring for your piercing Dr. Russak said the area needs to be cleaned with antibacterial soap and water daily after showering. It's also important to apply an ointment like Vaseline or Aquaphor every day. The ointment tip was news to me as I've had my fair share of piercings, and no one has ever told me to use Vaseline to help the healing process. Keeping wounds moisturised with ointment not only speeds up recovery time, but it protects them from drying out, scabbing, crusting, and becoming infected.
Take it from me, don't be a hero if your piercing remains painful after a few weeks (or in my case, months) or shows any sign of an infection including redness, oozing, crusting, or the development of bumps. It's normal for piercings to be sore for the first few days, or, in the case of cartilage piercings, a couple of weeks. From then on, piercings should start to heal. They should not be getting worse.
If you think there's a slight chance you might have an infection, play it safe and head to the doctor. If you nip it in the bud early with proper treatment it's likely you won't have to say sayonara to your piercings, and it will put the end to a lot of unnecessary pain.