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Healing belly button piercing
I'm sure some of us around here have our navels pierced or work as piercers. I was just wondering how long it usually takes to heal. I know when I got my ears pierced years ago they said it would take a certain amount of time to heal (can't remember how long) but I remember my ears were too sensitive and took quite a while longer to heal (I don't think they were completely healed until at least 6 months later).
I got my belly button bedazzled in June of 2011; should I be concerned that is still isn't fully healed yet? I do my best to keep it clean after I shower, but it ends up drying/crusting into place later anyways, and if I accidentally tug it out of place it will start to bleed a bit. -
41 Replies
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I've been told that it can take up to a year minimum for a belly piercing to heal up. I briefly had mine done, but it kept rubbing on stuff and always looking this angry red. So ended up removing it. Maybe one day I will revisit it.
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Mine doesn't look red or swollen, so I think that's a good sign. It does however look like…an unhealed wound (how profound of me..) when I move it a little to clean it.
Hearing that it can take up to year minimum makes me feel a little better. I thought something was wrong since it hadn't healed yet. None of my friends have it done so I can't really ask their experiences with it
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Kitty, what do you mean by a crease line? Like slouching over so your stomach creases like a wrinkly worm that's doing crunches? LOL
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Body piercings take a lot longer to heal then your ears- 6 months is average. I have several and the best advice I have is to use baby soap every day in the shower. It is antibacterial but gentle and won't dry out skin. Even years later, when one of my piercings "flare up" – a few days of baby wash and I am good.
You can also ask your piercer for a "retainer" (after healing) – this is a smaller plastic curved barbell that can replace your piercing and stay out of your way.
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A friend of mine has her belly button pierced and she just wears a loop and it won't irritate when poling.
My body is strange and does not react very well to piercings. I've had my ear lobes take up to 6 months to heal up, and every now and then it flares up for no apparently reason. I baby it and clean it with salt and water and it usually gets better within the day. I would hate to know how it would take for my body to heal a belly button piercing https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif
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I had a piercing (the don’t triangle thingy in the center front part of the eat I can’t remember what’s the name of it) that seemed to not want to heal properly at all (it kept keloiding really big and I was afraid it would a: be ugly without the piercing and scar horribly out b: be ugly with it and scar horribly) so I went back to the Piercer who also happened to be a nurse. She told me to gently and lightly swab it with tea tree oil every night for a week, then every other night until healed. It finally worked but it took some time. It’s perfect now and no one would every know that it scarred so bad in the first place! So maybe talk to a doctor or nurse that may be familiar with tea tree oil and see if that might be an option?
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I got my belly ring about 6 months ago! The guy at the shop told me the only thing to clean it with is saline (contact solution) and do it atleast twice a day or more!
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I have had my belly button piercing since Sept 2000. I was pierced with a hoop. I was told it could take anywhere from 9mths to a yr to completely heal. I used witch hazel to clean mine as was recommended at the time and it has only been infected once this whole time. ( That was due to my own stupid actions-I was camping and got it dirty and forgot to bring my witch hazel to clean it. So over serveral days w/o being cleaned properly it got infected:( ) I know it can sometimes can longer for different people. My best friend got hers done at the same time as mine and hers was healed within 6mths. Mine however was almost a year to be fully healed and able to take it out to change jewerly. We did exactly the same thing…hope this is helpful:)
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It's been helpful to hear that everyone has different experiences with body piercings healing. I think I'll start using a saline soak with a shot glass a couple times per day and see if it gets better. If not, I'll go back to the place where I got the piercing and have them take a look at it.
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I had mine done about 5 years ago and it still bleeds every once in a while. Every day it is a little crusty, but I have this same problem with my ear piercings.
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It took about 9months for my to deal. As any piercer will stress this to you- keep it clean! The only problem i had with mine was i changed my ring and it got a little infection, like a large red bump. I took the new ring out and put the previous one in- took a cup and held warm salt water on it 2 times a day and the infection healed in 5 days. Havent had issues since and have had it for 6 years
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Mine to heal**** i type so fast on my phone that i mispell words- sorrry and good luck 🙂
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Belly button piercings are so dificult to heal because they are literally ina place on your body that moves so much – they're basically placed on your body's hinge.
So I wouldn't be worried that it's taken about a year, that's pretty normal. I think mine took about 7 months to heal completely, but in general I'm really good with healing piercings.
Just keep it clean with saline solution (dilute a bit of tea tree oil if you start to get scarring – this will help minimise it) and you should have no problems with it. It'll heal in it's own time. If your immune system is low, it might take longer to heal as well.
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Mine took over a year because I discovered I was allergic to any metal other than gold. What the piercer used was not gold so my belly button swole, was red, had green thick pus coming out, felt hot all the time, and I even had a keloid which is what azblanco described.
During this time I was advised to use glycerin soap or antibacterial, and wash with sea salt and water in a cup minimum 3x daily. I also had to take my ring out and clean it, or move it up and down while in my navel immediately AFTER doing a sea salt soak or a hot shower to help drain/break up the dried up crust and mucous inside and out. Then do a sea salt wash again to flush it out.
Once I discovered I had the metal allergy, I immediately switched to a clear plastic ring from Walmart until I could afford a gold one. That combined with just the sea salt rinses cleared it up immediately, and the sea salt helped dry out the wound as well so. A few months later I found out I was pregnant and I was able to leave my belly ring in throughout my pregnancy and delivery with no problem at all.
It gets a little tender at times after I catch it on things and it gets yanked by my inquiring neices and nephews (ouch!) but never that bad since. And I think the sea salt made a Major difference!
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I never thought about a metal allergy, I had my nose pierced years back and it never seemed to fully heal, was just like you're describing. I eventually gave up and took it out but I bet that's what it was…thanks for the insight I never thought of that, good to know.
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