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Healing My Cartilage
19/M
I just got my cartilage pierced, and I was wondering how can I make it heal fast? Would vitamins for skin growth help? I know I need to wash it two times a day (morning and night), but what else can I do to help it heal quickly? I love it, but I do not want a nine month recovery. Please and thank you for helping!
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There's actually things you can do to improve the healing process. The duration of healing greatly depends on your own health. For example, if you have a lowered immune system then you can expect the healing process to take weeks, or even months, longer than averaged.
This advice is coming from a girl who's had 17 piercings (here, there, and every where). My advice is not of an expert, but that of someone who has done a lot (hours amounting to days, days amounting of probably multiple weeks) of research and reading (and, admittedly, a little trial and error / real life experience).
Things you want to avoid:
Lack of sleep / exhaustion
Swimming
Smoking
Alcohol / Peroxide / Soap / Ointments
Touching / twisting it
Changing the jewelry
Over cleansing
What you want to do:
Vitamins
Good eating habits
Drink plenty of water
Regular daily routine / good sleeping habits
Rinse with saltwater (saline) solution (no more than twice daily)
Keep hair off of it
Taking a daily multi-vitamin will ensure your body has enough nutrients to function and heal as it should. You're dealing with a wound here. Your body has to take a lot of resources to heal that properly.
If there is in infection, do not self treat. This is how people wind up missing parts of their ear. I've seen it before. DO NOT DO IT. Don't just smear some anti-biotic ointment on the infection and go with it. A piercing is a puncture wound and should be treated as such. Antibiotic ointment was created for scrapes and minor cuts. Not puncture wounds. It cannot penetrate to the center of the wound, and, thus, will help to seal in bacteria.
If it becomes infected, you need to see your piercer and your doctor. Your piercer might be able to provide you a little guidance. Your doctor can help get you a prescription to help clear up the infection.
In regards to washing it twice a day: I hope you mean you're rinsing it off with saline solution. You should never, never put soap onto a piercing. It dries the skin out, and if it's antibacterial soap then it inhibits the growth of healthy, healing cells too. You should rinse your piercing off with saline twice daily at the most. If there is some crusty bits that build up then you can soak a q-tip in saline solution and GENTLY wipe off the crusts. Soaking the piercing in saline before doing this will help loosen the debris, but you should not be soaking your piercing often. A simple rinse with the solution is enough to help your body do it's own, natural healing.
Here is a tip you might be able to use:
If your piercing is that of a regular stud, then you might already have experienced difficulty sleeping on it. When I had my cartilage pierced the back of the earring would jab into my head and it would make the piercing (and my head) very sore. I bought some nose studs with the loop back and had my piercer sanitize (autoclave) the jewelry and put it in for me. I cannot tell you how great this was.
Additionally, if the piercing swells or is uncomfortable after the initial piercing then you can take an ibuprofen tablet to help calm it.
Most people don't do their research before getting pierced. Remember that getting a new piercing is a process. Your body has to heal it. You have to take care of it. You might have to make changes in your lifestyle to have a healthy piercing. Always use your head about this. If, say, you desperately want to go swimming next week then you just shouldn't get pierced now. If you can't wait the duration of the average healing time then maybe the piercing is just not for you. I'm not ragging on you, trust me, but it's really discouraging to see so many people not realize that their actions will effect other things.
Anyway, I hope it heals well and I'm always here to provide you with some more advice if you would like. My inbox is completely open.
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there's not much you can really do to make it heal faster.. you just gotta wait it out :)
But here's a tip- if there's an infection, put some triple anti-biotic cream on it to make that heal :)
Oh and make sure its not irritated in any way. Like don't pull on it, be careful when you get dressed, make sure you don't sleep on it awkwardly, take good care of it :)
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