Had recently done a nose piercing? Worried about getting infected? You need not worry about it anymore. You won’t get an infection if you are cleaning it properly. Here at NuHeals, we will discuss how to clean nose piercings.
Nose piercing is very popular between both women and men. In some continents, it is related to tradition, or orthodox norms, and in some other areas, it is just fashion to wear jewelry. It is a little painful process and should be done by professionals. People do pierce in various nose areas like septum piercing, nostril piercing, high nostril piercing, vertical tip piercing, bridge or surface piercing, nasallang piercing, and septril piercing. All of these take approximately 4 to 6 months to heal, some of them may vary.
Why is the Cleaning Needed?
As we all know cleaning is a necessary daily life process to be dirt-free and disease-free. Similarly cleaning nose piercing is an important aspect to prevent the piercing area from infection, trauma, and irritation.
Cleaning is needed to take out debris that is stuck in the piercing hole. Also, it enhances the healing process. During the inflammatory stages, the blood clots and scar tissues get stuck around the jewelry which needs to be cleaned up. In the middle phase, the fluid which gets discharged from the fistula should be cleared. Otherwise, it will affect the healing.
Necessary Requirements to Clean Nose Piercing:
Ask your piercer about the things that are needed for cleaning. They will suggest ingredients according to your skin type. Some commonly needed things for the process are as follows;
- saline solution
- cotton wool balls
- Q-tips
- paper towels
- a mug, a small bowl to hold the saline solution
- Lavender oil, tea tree oil, or coconut oil (unrefined)
You should talk with your piercer about which kind of oil you need for the moisturization of that area.
2 Different Ways to Clean Nose Piercing:
Though the cleaning is not a lengthy process, it has certain important steps which need to be followed up. You need to pay special attention to those things. And see the two different ways (naturally, advanced technique), to clean the nose after piercing. Here is what to do ;
Process 1: Clean Nose By Removing Crust
Follow the 6 steps to clean the nose.
Step 1: Washing Hands
Always wash your hands before doing the cleaning. Wash your hand well with soap or handwash. It will cause infection and unnecessary irritation in the area if touched with dirty, uncleaned hands.
Step 2: Prepare The Solution
Bring the saline water from medical stores. If you do not want to use saline water then ask your piercer for some cleaning spray or order some.
Take the saline water to a bowl.
Step 3: Applying solution to that area
If you have the cleaning sprayer you can straight spray it over the area, then gently wipe it out with cotton bulbs. But if you are using the saline water, then you can use it in two ways.
The first one is to dip your nose in the saline water bowl. Or you can dip a Q-tip in the saline water and gently rub the soaked tip in the pierced area.
Step 4: Removing crust
If there is a crust stuck in the area then avoid the thought of taking it out as much as you can. If you really need to get rid of it, then softly rub the Q-tip on it for some more time. Do not be harsh with it.
Step 5: Drying Out
To dry the solution completely from the area, dab it with some thick tissue paper or use a towel. Do not use any thin paper or clothes to dry it otherwise, the clothes can get stuck in the pierced ring or stud which will give you immense pain.
Step 6: Moisturization
Moisturization is an important part of the cleaning, it soothes the skin and helps it to heal faster. Use some lavender oil on the surface to get soothing skin. You can also apply tea-tree oil or unrefined coconut oil to moisturize it. If your piercer has suggested you any other oil, you can apply that oil instead of these.
Process 2: Clean Nose By Using Home Remedy
Remedy 1: You can use salt water from home instead of saline water during the cleaning. Take ¼ spoon of sea salt and mix it up with warm water. This solution can be applied exactly as saline water.
Remedy 2: Turmeric works great as an antibiotic. You can apply turmeric to the affected area for better results.
Aftercare & Safety Guideline:
You should follow some tips during the cleaning process and after it. Following the tips will make the healing faster. You should not touch the area again and again unnecessarily. Do not use any soap or face washing products on it. Never apply makeup products to the affected area. Do not consume any pain killer for the pain or tenderness in that area. Though it seems like an infection is setting on, you need not use strong antiseptics or Neosporin. Saline solution is enough to treat the affected area.
During the healing process and after it also you need to know some guidelines for safety. Those are ;
- Tell your piercer to use a new or sterile needle while piercing.
- Always touch the piercing area with washed clean hands.
- The pierced stud or ring should be cleaned from time to time.
- Do not take out the pierced jewelry for the first6 to 8 months.
- Never share nose rings or studs with other people.
- Don’t ever force a ring back into the piercing hole, gently insert the ring in a clockwise motion until it sets.
- Don’t twist or play with your nose jewelry, as this will irritate the piercing.
Some materials that are found to be good to use as nose jewelry are ;
- surgical-grade steel
- titanium
- 14-karat or higher gold
Healing Stages :
Piercing is an instant process, hardly takes about 30 minutes to be done. But the healing is a long process. It goes through 3 phases before complete healing. Those are ;
Inflammatory stage:
This is the first few days or weeks just after piercing. The body tries to seal the wound, where the jewelry entered. It changes the wounded tissues with new tissues. Blood clots around the jewelry, WBC restores skin and tissues with collagen, and tissue around the jewelry starts to swell to try and reject the piercing. Pain, tenderness, warmth, and bleeding happen in this period.
Proliferative stage :
It is after a few weeks or months of piercing. The body starts making a fistula out of scar tissue from one end to the other end. Fistula is a yellow-tinged fluid made up of lymph, blood plasma, and dead blood cells. Discharging of yellow fluid gradually stops. The two sides of the fistula around the pierced areas start to fully connect, completing the scar tissue formation. Your piercing may feel extremely tender for these few weeks or months
Seasoning or Maturation stage :
This is the last stage of the healing process. The inside linings of the fistula get thick. It fixes the jewelry and also makes it easier to remove and replace it. The piercing is also less likely to close because the tissue is fully healed.
During the healing time, it needs special attention and care.
