Infected Nose Piercing: How to Prevent, Identify, Treat and Remove

Infected Nose Piercing: How to Prevent, Identify, Treat and Remove

Nose piercing is cool until you don’t get any infections. But the mere thought of having your nose pierced comes with a fear of developing infections afterward. This article is for you if you are suffering from such a dilemma or have already got an infected nose piercing.

When you pierce your nose or any part of your body, the irritation is obvious and takes around 5-6 months to heal completely, but it should start getting at ease within 2-3 days.

If you feel that it’s getting worse instead of being better or if you develop an infected nose piercing bump, it’s time to look at options for treatment.

There can be various types of treatments depending on the condition of your nose, and in this article, we are discussing them all. Let us start with understanding the seriousness of your infected nose piercing. Further, we will identify the treatments, and afterward, we will look at options to treat the annoying marks. This is a full guide to treating your nose piercing entirely. Read till the end to get the best knowledge.

How do you get infected nose piercing

Infected nose piercing is uncommon, and it only happens in certain conditions. If you can prevent the infection in the first place, there is no need for treatment afterward. Here are some conditions that cause infected nose piercing.

  • Every wound needs to be cleaned if you don’t clean your nose piercing thoroughly with water after getting punched, it’s more likely to develop infections
  • Properly sanitized equipment must be used for piercing, so check them before you allow the piercer to use them on your body
  • Wrong products, techniques, or cleaning usually leave you with an infected nose piercing
  • Make sure to check cleaning tutorials before you start with the process
  • Allergic jewelry is among the major reasons
  • It can show symptoms even after months of getting pierced
  • Diabetes, improper immune status, or immunodeficiency conditions can drive infections too

Make sure to check these conditions before you get your piercing done. This way, you can prevent infection and save yourself from pain, itchiness, marks, or the hassle of visiting a dermatologist. Still, if you are already infected, then continue reading for solutions.

How to know if your nose piercing is infected?

It’s obvious to understand when something is wrong with your body. But, itchiness and redness are common in the case of nose piercing, and people commonly confuse it with the normal curing process.

Still, in reality, the condition is getting deteriorated. So how do you distinguish between normal healing and nose piercing infections? Here are some ways to identify!

  • Infected nose piercing bump – You don’t develop a bump in normal conditions. It is an infection if you feel a bump full of puss developing at the piercing site. Please start with the treatment before it gets worse.
  • Inside infected nose piercing – Try to touch the piercing site inside the nose. If you feel sudden pain and figure it’s wet, your nose piercing is infected.

Moreover, you don’t have to perform tricks to identify the infected nose piercing in many conditions. Your body will automatically tell you that you got an infection, it’s growing, and it needs treatment.

Make sure you understand the signs and get treatment immediately because if it worsens, you need to bear more pain and hassle.

How to treat an infected nose piercing?

The treatment depends on the seriousness of the infection. If you think it’s not big enough to see a specialist, you can apply home remedies for treatment. In most cases, you don’t even need a specialist; it’s a small wound that automatically heals.

Still, if you got a medical condition, then visit your piercer. The expert will be the best person to give you the correct advice because he did the piercing and knows the kind of equipment he uses.

Based on the seriousness, he will advise you to visit a dermatologist or self-treat the wound using some antiseptic or other remedies.

Infected Nose Piercing: How to Prevent, Identify, Treat and Remove

Top 8 ways to treat infected nose piercing

If you identify your wound as good enough to be treated at home, you can try any of these ways to treat your infection. But if it’s not working, then immediately visit a specialist to get the best treatment.

1. Clean the piercing site

Every treatment starts with properly cleaning the wound. Mix soap in water to clean the wound and apply it from inside and outside so the soapy water must pass through the pierced hole for the best cleaning. Even if it’s not infected, we recommend you try the process for better hygiene.

With that, you can use a cotton pad, tissue, or clean cloth with antiseptic solutions like diluted hydrogen peroxide or betadine to get the best results, but make sure you don’t apply pressure for cleaning. Do it normally!

2. Avoid removing skin or debris

If you feel that your wound has started to dry and that skin inside gives you an itchy sensation and makes you feel like scratching the wound, please don’t do it.

Because it’s a sign of repairs, and you will delay the process by removing the skin, or you might make it worse.

Also, apply topical antibiotics at the piercing site. Bacitracin and Neosporin are some of the safest products that suit all skin types, but you are free to use your favorite product. But must provide you relief.

3. Change your jewelry

Your jewelry might be the primary cause of the infections. Some metals can react with your skin to create a wound. That’s why experts suggest wearing gold if you are prone to infections with metals. Either you can change the type of jewelry or don’t wear any for a few days to prioritize the healing process.

If you are wearing jewelry, we recommend removing it and starting the cleaning or treatment for the best results. Make sure you don’t experiment with a new type of jewelry until you get complete relief.

Infected Nose Piercing: How to Prevent, Identify, Treat and Remove

4. Hot compressing

Hot compressing is a popular home remedy used by many as a pain reliever that also helps treat the infected nose piercing. For this process, you must use a hot compress with soothing oils that have inflammatory benefits, like chamomile or tea tree oil. Where hot press will provide you with pain relief, and the oils will promote fast healing.

Ensure you don’t overdo the process or do much worse than good. Use it at the normal hot temperature just enough so that you can bear it for some time. Apply it twice a day. If you don’t see benefits, then discontinue to try other options or visit a dermatologist.

5. Cleansing after shower

Our skin tends to lose its elasticity after showering, providing a good opportunity to clean the infection with soap water. You can do the same and then apply any antibiotic for proper healing. Even applying salt to the piercing site will provide many benefits like faster healing and reduced germ build-up.

But applying salt to an open wound will cause an extremely itchy sensation that might give you tears. So, use it accordingly. If you have removed the skin from the wound and the flesh is visible, we don’t recommend using salt on it.

6. Apply a cream

Various creams in the market promote immediate dryness of the wound. You can apply them on the piercing site for quick healing. But make sure to use the right product because using a cream that promotes a solution by creating puss will only deteriorate the condition.

Apply it overnight to see immediate benefits and ensure the cream doesn’t stick to your bedsheet for at least one hour after applying.

7. Medicines

You can take some medicines to dry the wound to make the healing process faster. If you are feeling extreme pain that might give you a mild fever, taking a pain killer is recommended to continue the treatment. Also, you can take paracetamol if you think the fever is just because of the pain.

However, don’t continue taking medicine for long. If you feel no improvement, looking for alternatives is better than waiting for the infection to heal automatically.

8. Visit a specialist

If nothing works and your condition is still getting worse, please visit your piercer to check what solution he got. He will probably provide the best advice for treating infected nose piercing because they have experience treating it.

If you don’t find benefits, you can contact a dermatologist for the best resolution. In most cases, you won’t have to take that step because it’s just a small infection that treats automatically.

Nose piercing scars

Suppose you successfully dealt with the infected nose piercing, but now it left you with a scar on top of your nose that doesn’t look very pleasing. In that case, you can try some of the treatments we mentioned.

However, the wound disappears automatically in most cases, and you don’t have to try the treatments. We recommend you wait for some time until the healing comes plate. If you don’t find any improvement with the scar, you start with the treatment.

Prevent Nose Piercing Scars

Preventing a nose-piercing scar is much better than treating it afterward. With a little advice and a piece of information, you can prevent the scar from happening in the first place. Follow the tips mentioned below to attain the benefits:

  • Don’t tug or twist the jewelry often when you have an infected nose piercing. It hinders the healing process and leaves you with a scar. Use gold or platinum jewelry and leave it there without twisting or tugging.
  • Soak your nose piercing in salt or soapy water during the healing process to get healthy tissue cells and no scars.
  • Avoid harsh disinfectants like alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on the piercing site. These products irritate, and scratching your nose will surely leave you with a scar.
  • Try to use aftercare products for better prevention of scars. Ask your piercer for the best product based on your skin type.

Infected Nose Piercing: How to Prevent, Identify, Treat and Remove

Treatment of infected nose piercing

Based on the severity, we can divide the scars into 3 types, and the treatment differs for each type of scar. First, figure out your scar type, then apply the remedies mentioned.

Common scars

Common scars that happen to most of you are pretty obvious, even if they don’t need treatment. They look slightly different from your skin color. They resemble the little black hole that appears after removing the ornament.

The scars don’t go away easily but start to fade away with time. You can gently massage the piercing spot with oils or lotion for betterment.

Keloid scars

Keloid scars happen because of the excess scar tissue; they can even occur while your jewelry is in place. These scars look like a bump that usually grows around the injured tissue.

Unfortunately, these scars don’t have a treatment, and they usually don’t fade away with time. You need to see a dermatologist and take prescribed treatment to get rid of them. Surgery or some injections might help you in the treatment process.

Hypertrophic scars

These are similar to keloid scars and look like a small red bump beside the piercing jewelry in your nose. Fortunately, they aren’t difficult to treat and usually vanish as your piercing restores. Just use the regular after-wash and don’t try to move the jewelry a lot. The scar will automatically be gone.

Final thoughts

First, figure out the seriousness of the infected nose piercing. If you think you can treat it at home, try the remedies mentioned in this article and check the option to treat the scar. However, if you don’t see any benefit and your wound is deteriorating with time, you must see a dermatologist soon.

Remember, the sooner you start the treatment, the better it will be. Have you got any questions? Please leave them in the comments for us to answer.

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