How To Tell If A Stretched Ear Is Infected

Are my stretched ears infected?

This sometimes happens when you stretch up, especially after a tear. Even once the tear heals, it's vulnerable to opening again no matter how long you wait before stretching again. If they're dry AND red, it sounds like your ears are rejecting the jewelry. The most important thing I can stress is to keep your lobes hydrated. Wash them with soap and water twice a day, and massage them with fragrance-free lotion. If they're still very raw, or seem to be taking a long time to heal, I recommend A&D ointment or bacitracin to help them heal while you have the jewelry in (otherwise it will try to close up). Try and replace your jewelry with stainless steel while it's healing, jewelry made from acrylic or other materials are much more likely to cause infection and irritation. Twist your jewelry while it's in your ear to keep it from sticking to your ear while it's healing, and possibly ripping more skin.

How do I know if my stretched ears are infected?

With any stretching, you're going to notice swelling and redness for several days to several weeks. It may appear to get better, but it may come back. The things you really need to watch out for are green or brown crust and discharge. This can be a sign of a very nasty infection! I would not worry about bruising or bleeding, or even a yellow or white crust... these are all normal! Piercings are trauma to the body, and these crusts are just dead skin cells and lymphocytes. DO NOT pick the crust. It should go away when you do your salt water soaks. As I said before, really look out for darker discharge or crust, and if the redness or swelling becomes extreme. You are going to experience some pain, but if the pain gets unbearable, this could also be a sign of infection.

The salt water soaks definitely help, but make sure you are using sea salt and not ionized salt (table salt). I would only do the soaks once or twice a day though, because too much salt can actually dry up the skin, making it more painful. I also suggest buying some kind of antibacterial soap that does not contain lye (meaning liquid soap). For all of the piercings I have had, I did a soap wash with Satin brand liquid soap, twice a day, for 31 days. After the 31 days, you can reduce to once a day and eventually just to every once in a while.

And if you do think you have an infection, DO NOT take the jewelry out. See a doctor immediately. Taking the jewelry out could cause skin to grow around the infection causing an abscess. DO NOT use Neosporin, Bactene, or rubbing alcohol on your piercing either! Stick with the salt water soaks and liquid soap.

Hope this helps (:

How to treat infected stretched ears?

Firstly, get the damn tapers OUT OF YOUR EARS!!
So sick of telling people this, but tapers harbor bacteria, create uneven stretches AND can damage your lobes.
When stretching, you should buy a set of plugs (surgical steel, titanium or glass, single flare or no flare), sit it flush with the taper, and push the plugs through after the taper.

2 months isn't long enough to wait between stretches. You need to wait at least 3, and that's the minimum.

Now, to get to the actual state of your lobes. Downsize to at least a 6g, making sure you have titanium, glass or surgical steel SF or NF plugs/eyelets. Do Sea Salt Soaks 2-3 times a day, and just leave your lobes the hell alone until they're better.

Never use harsh chemicals (like peroxide) to clean your tapers OR plugs/eyelets. It is so harsh, that it will actually affect the health of your lobes. Also, Neosporin= incredibly bad for fresh stretches and infected ears.

Once your lobes have healed, massage them with Vitamin E or Emu Oil. This will help break down the scar tissue. 3 months down the track, you can think about stretching again.

www.bodyartforms.com/forums <---Go there if you have more problems. They know more than the majority of people on Yahoo Answers.

Are my stretched ears infected or just very raw?

I stretched to a 0 2-3 days ago, both went in fine with some pain. However, I had tried slipping in a plug into my left ear multiple times with no avail, and it probably caused the lobe to tear more. 2-3 days later that lobe is swollen, not very red on the outside, however I took it out today and it's very red and raw on the inside. There was a little bit of yellow/white puss on the outside. I stuck a q-tip in there to clean it with anti-bacterial soap and there was blood. It wasn't oozing or anything, just very raw and a bit bloody on the inside.

I'm not sure if it's infected or just very raw and irritated from me trying to put that plug in straight away. If it's not infected, should I keep taking it out and cleaning it or just let it heal?

I have infected stretched ears. I can't go to the doctor because I have no health insurance. PLEASE HELP!?

I Have an infected stretched ear and no health insurance or any money to pay the medical bill. I do how ever have some left over amoxicillin. Should I take this medication to help heal my ears or no? I soak my ears in sea salt and sometimes hydrogen peroxide. I have had swollen lymph nodes for a few days now but they have been going down and the swelling is gone from my ear lobes. its just pussing a lot. Thanks for your help!

Infected or just aggravated [ear stretching]?

Your ears should never bleed from a stretch, end of story. If you felt a popping sensation when you pushed the taper through, you probably blew them out.

My advice would be to downsize to 2g or 4g for a few months and start doing daily massages with either emu oil or jojoba oil. I prefer emu, but that is entirely a matter of preference.

Also, are you wearing acrylic in your ears? Acrylic is not meant to be worn for extended periods of time; it will cause even fully healed earlobes to get irritated, swollen, and weepy. If you are wearing acrylic, I would recommend switching to glass, titanium, or steel. You should be able to buy a pair of steel eyelets from a piercing studio nearby for a reasonable price.

Edit: The pus and blood are definitely NOT normal. At all. When you say pus, you may be thinking of lymph (it would be white or yellow, and build up on the jewelery). Lymph is normal. Blood means that you have ripped your earlobe, which should not happen in a stretch. It has never happened in my earlobes, or in my boyfriend's (whose earlobes are close to an inch in size now.).

If you are wearing acrylic, try buying steel tunnels in a 2g. Downsizing is a good thing to do every once in a while to keep your earlobes healthy (it thickens them up, so that you don't end up with thin spots), and getting the acrylic out of there will help them heal up better.

Sea salt soaks do no hurt at all. Make sure you use non-iodized sea salt, though, and make sure that the solution is warm. I prefer sea salt soaks to H2Ocean.

Jojoba oil can be purchased at a pharmacy like Walgreens or CVS. Walgreens also carries emu oil, but you should be able to buy it at your piercing studio. If you can't, you can find it online at www.bodyartforms.com