║Cleaning your piercings║
Oral Piercing edition 

If part of your piercing is OUTSIDE your mouth, follow these instructions:

Clean your piercings 1-2x/day during the healing process. As the wound begins producing less lymphatic fluid (“crusties”), you may start to clean it less often. 

1. Wash Hands properly with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason. 

2. Rinse the outside of the piercing with sterile saline solution or under warm water in the shower. Do not remove jewellery

3. Pat Dry with a fresh piece of disposable paper towel. Do not use cloth wipes as they can easily snag the piercing. Do not use tissue paper, toilet paper, or q-tips as the fibers can easily build up on the jewellery, causing other problems.

3.5 Gently wipe the jewellery off with paper towel 1-3x/week to remove the build up. This should be done after a good soak in the shower, which will help soften the “crusties”, making them easier to remove.

Be gentle and remember: Overcleaning can lead to further irritation!

If part of your piercing is INSIDE your mouth, follow these instructions:

1. Any time anything other than water goes in your mouth*: Immediately rinse out your mouth. An Isotonic saline solution is the best to rinse with. Rinsing with just water is better than not rinsing at all. Non-alcoholic, non-whitening mouthwash may be used up to twice a day. Overuse of mouthwash may lead to issues like dry/inflamed oral tissues, sores, or imbalances to your oral microbiome.

*This includes food, drink, smoking or vaping (of any kind), and other people’s bodily fluids.

Do not play with, twist, turn, or move the jewellery. Do not remove your jewellery at all during the healing process, unless you are intending to retire the piercing.
AFTER your piercing is healed: Gently brush the piercing along with your teeth to prevent/remove plaque build-up.

I recommend using NeilMed’s Piercing Aftercare Spray to clean your new piercings. This is a sterile saline solution, also known as Wound Wash. If you are purchasing another brand, look for an “isotonic” solution of 0.9% (9mg/mL) Sodium Chloride with no other additives. Do not use contact lens solution. 

For rinsing inside of mouth: The Piercing Spray will work, but it will get pricey due to how much you will need to use. Homemade saline can create issues if done incorrectly, so please talk to Eann about what method will work best for you.

Ensure all objects that may come into contact with the healing piercings are clean. This includes bed linens, towels, and fingers.

Do not submerge fresh piercings in unhygienic bodies of water for at least 6-8 weeks. This includes the ocean, pools, rivers, lakes, etc. Baths should also be avoided unless the tub has been given a good scrub before and no products (bath bombs, bubbles, oils, etc) are being used.

As long as the wound is still open, there is a potential for infectious material to get inside your body. Many piercings will not be healed after only 8 weeks, so be cautious and ask your piercer if you need advice.

║Initial Expectations║

In the first few days or weeks after your piercing, you may experience the following: Swelling around the piercing site, redness, some minor bruising, and the excretion of an off-white/yellow liquid (lymph). Do not be alarmed, these are signs that your body is healing the piercing. Trauma or irritation to the area may prolong the duration and increase the severity of the inflammation.

You may take an anti-inflammatory medication (Aspirin, etc.) to help with initial pain/swelling, if needed.

Please check in with your piercer if these symptoms do not seem to be improving. 

║Things to Avoid║

NO Touching, twisting, or spinning of the jewellery. This will irritate the piercing, damage the healing tissue, and potentially introduce pathogens. 

Be careful to not BITE or FIDGET with the jewellery. This may irritate your piercing and potentially cause damage to your jewellery, teeth, and/or gums.

NO “Ear piercing solutions”, Rubbing alcohol, Hydrogen peroxide, Iodine, or other harsh chemicals. These are not meant for long-term wound care. They may irritate the healing piercing and will kill developing cells, leading to a much longer healing time and potentially worse scarring. 

NO Overcleaning. The less you touch and move the jewellery the better. Overcleaning can irritate or dry out the piercing.

NO Polysporin and Neosporin, which are petroleum-based and leave behind a greasy residue on the jewellery and can clog pores.

NO Soap, which may contain scents, perfumes, and dyes - all can contribute to irritation. If doing the old school Baby Soap Method, talk to your piercer.

NO Tea Tree Oil, which is way too harsh for ongoing wound care. If you are concerned about hyper-trophic scarring, talk to your piercer.

NO Band-aids, which create warm, wet, dark places that bacteria love. Band-aids may be helpful in certain situations with increased catch-risks, but talk to your piercer to learn how to reduce the harm!

NO Make-up, Lip products or Hair products should be getting in or on your piercing. That will irritate your healing wound and dull your jewellery.

NO Advice from people who aren’t piercers.

Just because it worked for them, or it worked for someone on the internet, does not mean it is a good idea. Please discuss with your piercer before trying any other aftercare methods. There is room for other methods, but you need to know how to do it safely.

NO changing it too early! It takes time for your piercing to be strong enough to resist tearing when you remove and insert jewellery. Please be patient. “Healed” does not mean “strong.” When you’re ready, your piercer can go over how to do things safely and give you tips.

BE CAREFUL with Home-Made Saline. There are many steps that can be done wrong, all of which can cause serious complications. Stick with pre-mixed sterile saline, or use isotonic saline meant for a neti pot and mix according to the instructions. Talk to Eann about how to do this.

║Downsizing and Upsizing║

Most piercings are done with a larger piece of jewellery to allow for swelling and drainage. Once the piercing is mostly healed, the excess length can lead to irritation, increasing the catch risk of your piercing, and providing more surface area for gunk to build up on, all which will make it take longer to fully heal. It is recommended that you downsize around the time told to you by your piercer, or at the very least have a check-up to make sure the healing process is going well. You will receive a 50% discount on the shorter labret or barbell when your piercing is ready.

Some piercings (cheeks, philtrums) typically swell A LOT. For those, a partial downsize will be done at 2-4 weeks (no charge, just swapped) and a full downsize will be done at 2-3 months.

If you experience more swelling than your jewellery has room for, come in ASAP to have your piece upsized. There is no charge to upsize. 

Jewellery that is Too Short will not fix itself, so it is important to deal with those issues immediately.

The earliest change/downsize date given to you is a minimum estimate only. There are instances when you will need to wait longer, depending on how the piercing is healing, or what your body is doing. The minimum downsizing time does not represent the time it takes for your piercing to fully heal, but rather the minimum time you must wait to downsize (shorten) your jewellery. Even at that point, you should still be careful not to irritate or damage the fistula (tube of scar tissue that makes up the piercing channel) by changing your piercing too often, or too roughly. As the scar tissue ages, it becomes stronger, and you will have more freedom with what you wear. Be patient! 🖤

If you are downsizing to a tight-fitting hoop, a minimum of 6 months is needed for most piercings. If the piercing is irritated, it is NOT READY FOR A RING.