Whether you’ve got countless piercings, or you’ve just got your first piercing, an effective cleaning regime is super important to ensure proper healing and prevent infection.
A new piercing requires a lot of aftercare which can be tricky to get right as some of us have more sensitive skin than others.
Knowing what to clean your piercing with can take a few tries to get right. You may have heard of people using salt to clean piercings, which is fine, BUT, it’s not as simple as mixing hot water with whatever salt you find in your kitchen cabinet.
If you want to use a water/salt mixture to clean your piercings it’s important that you only use sea salt and not table salt. This is because table salt, and other salts like kosher salt or Epsom salts contain iodine. This is actually harmful to healing wounds because the extra chemicals in iodine can irritate your piercing and could cause further infection.
Instead, use a sea salt mixture. To make the solution, mix sea salt with fresh, preferably distilled water. Make sure you use non-iodized sea salt. If you’re not sure, read the label - it shouldn’t contain anything other than sodium chloride/ salt.
It’s important to note the importance of the salt to water ratio. If the solution is too salty this can be harmful too. So, make sure the solution is no more salty than your tears. A non-iodized rock salt solution will help to bring out any discharge and stimulate blood flow to encourage healing and prevent future inflammation.
However, if you find a salt-water solution isn’t helping the wound to heal fast enough, or your piercing has become infected you may need to try a different cleaning regime.
In this instance, try using a medicated method, like the Dr Piercing Aftercare Solution. This aftercare solution includes 36 medicated swabs containing a special formula to treat body piercings.
It’s a safe (FDA approved) and effective way to treat piercings anywhere on your body and save you the hassle of preparing other cleaning methods.
It’s much quicker to prepare than a salt-water solution. Instead of spending time measuring out the water and salt, and heating it in the microwave, simply snap the top of the swab to activate the medication and apply to the site of the wound.
It not only speeds up the healing process, it prevents infection and reduces inflammation too which can be the biggest sources of pain with new piercings.
What happens if you use table salt on a piercing?
A regular cleaning routine is extremely important to ensure your new piercing heals properly and prevent you unnecessary pain in the future.
A lot of people tend to use a water/ salt solution to do this. This is a very common method to use and can be very effective, if done properly.
If you want to use a water/salt mixture to clean your piercings you can, as long as you use sea salt not table salt.
If you don’t know the difference, it’s easy to assume the salt in your condiment cabinet will do the job just fine.
However, table salt contains iodine, which is a harsh chemical that will irritate sensitive areas like skin wounds.
This is harmful to healing wounds because the extra chemicals and irritation can cause further inflammation and infection.
Sea salt is not iodized, so it’s safe for piercings (as long as you get the water to salt ratio right as too much of any kind of salt can be harmful to your skin). So, this is a safe alternative to using table salt on a piercing.
Alternatively, you could use the Dr Piercing Aftercare Solution to avoid any accidental problems caused by a salt water solution.
The Aftercare Solution is really easy to apply because it’s already premixed, so you can’t accidentally apply too much. All you have to do is follow the simple instructions included. Find the blue line and snap to release the solution into the cotton bud tip.
Each pack comes with 36 medicated swabs to last you weeks. You can read the handy healing timeline guide on their website to get an idea of how much to purchase to last you the entire healing process.
Clean the whole area thoroughly and repeat according to the product instructions and until the piercing has completely healed. Be sure to be gentle when rubbing the solution onto the wound as it will likely be very sensitive and sore.
The cleansing solution promotes a natural healing process, prevents any further infection and soothes irritation caused by jewelry. Not to mention, it’s proudly made in the USA and lab tested to ensure the highest safety and quality standards for your comfort.
