Alcohol, creams, soaps, or ointments

You should avoid using alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, ointments, essential oils, or soap directly on the piercing channel. These products can damage healthy tissue, trap bacteria, prevent proper oxygen flow, and delay healing. Sterile saline is the safest option for cleaning.

Cleaning your piercing too frequently can be just as harmful as not cleaning it enough. We recommend cleaning the piercing at least twice a day, as outlined in the aftercare instructions. However, if something gets on the piercing during the day that shouldn’t be there, it’s a good idea to clean it again. That said, you don’t want to over-clean the piercing by cleaning it unnecessarily throughout the day, as this can irritate the skin by moving the jewelry too much and may also dry out the skin with excessive cleaning.

Sleeping directly on the piercing can also interfere with healing. Pressure reduces circulation, increases swelling, and may result in crooked healing, irritation bumps, or the jewelry embedding into the skin. If you or your child must sleep on their side, using a travel pillow so the ear rests inside the opening can help relieve pressure.

Tight backings should be avoided during healing. Backings that are pressed too tightly restrict airflow, trap moisture, increase swelling, and can even cause the jewelry to embed. Earrings should have enough space so that when you gently push the earring forward, there is still a small gap — they should never appear to be squishing the ear. For earrings with a push-on backing, the backing should sit on the notch of the post and should not be pushed further in, which can leave the post sticking out of the backing.

Avoid submerging the piercing in pools, lakes, hot tubs, or the ocean during healing. Five days is the minimum waiting period, but the longer you can avoid these environments, the better, as they are not ideal for proper healing. If you do go swimming, we recommend waiting at least five days and thoroughly cleaning the piercing immediately afterward to remove any bacteria or residue from the water. For children who attend swim lessons or participate in summer programs with frequent swimming, it’s important to keep this in mind when scheduling a piercing. Bathing and showering are completely safe after a piercing, as long as you clean the piercing afterward to ensure no soap or residue remains on the jewelry or surrounding skin.

Healing piercings require stability, airflow, and minimal disturbance. The most common cause of irritation is not infection — it’s trauma.

You should never twist or spin the earrings. Twisting can tear newly forming tissue, push bacteria into the piercing channel, delay healing, and cause irritation bumps. During cleaning, jewelry should only be gently moved forward and back; rotation is not recommended.

During healing, be mindful of activities that can cause trauma, such as sports, changing clothes, brushing hair, wearing headphones, or using hats and helmets. Repeated friction is one of the most common reasons healing is prolonged.

It is important to check that hair is not wrapping around the back of the earring, especially in those with curly hair. Hair can trap moisture and bacteria, pull on the piercing, and cause painful swelling or embedding. Make a habit of checking the back of the ear while cleaning.

It can be difficult to know whether you or your child will have a reaction to certain metals until they are placed in a piercing. Some people may tolerate wearing jewelry on their skin, like necklaces or bracelets, but still have a reaction when the metal is in a piercing.

For first-time piercings, we typically recommend using a metal that you know no one in your family has a known allergy to, just to be safe. When swapping to new jewelry, make sure it is a new metal and that you have the ability to swap back to a safe metal if a reaction occurs. Reactions are similar to other skin allergies — you may notice redness, itching, or irritation shortly after the new metal is placed.

For children, it’s best to try new metals while they are with you rather than before they go somewhere like school. This way, if a reaction occurs, you can swap the jewelry back immediately. If the piercing is fresh and removed by someone else, it may begin to close before you have a chance to replace it with a safe metal.