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Healing belly button piercing
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I haven't read the rest of teh comments, but let me tell you what happend to me with my belly button ring. Got it at age 17. The guy said to use tea tree oil instead of neosporin because the neosporin would cause "too much healing" and hole would try to close… whatever… But… after like a year it still kept getting infected and felt like it was trying to close up all the time. It would always be crusty. The skin kept getting thinner and thinner where it was pierced.. and then one ay I was at the pool with a guy I liked. He jumped in on me and ripped out the belly ring. It hurt, but not as much as I thought. The skinwas so thin by then. So after like another 8 months or something I decided to get it re-pierced. It was like all scar tissue by then. It stayed in for a few weeks and then literally just came out. The skin just grew out. Point being… anything foreign in your body you run the risk of your body rejecting it. This can happen to piercings or breast implants ( I don't have but I've heard that is a risk). So watch out with these belly rings.. it sucks mine would just not stay in … it looked really cute.
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I've had my belly button pierced twice. And sadly both times my body rejected it. The first time i blame on the piercer. they pierced it off centre and at a bad angle (my mistake at 16 for going to a place that does not have proffessionally trianed piercers) I had it for about a year before I took it out as it had pushed itself out to just a think layer of skin.
the second time I went to a professionally recognized piercer and sadly even though it was done properly my body rejected it again. I've now attributed it to a slighty metal allergy. I've had other body piercings and as long as i use higher quality metals(gold) I am ok.
all of this talk makes me want to go get it done again though…..maybe third times the charm??? I'm not worried about scar tissue as my belly button is now also scarred from surgery from gallstones.
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@silverlady: girl.. you bring ruin to my life! those are to die for!!! I'm so getting one even if its for christmas!
I did my piercing right after i turned 18 (my parents didnt allow it before), it took about 8 months to fully heal… but it was worth it! sometimes when I wear too tight clothes it gets "upset" but its just a matter of kipping it clean and all its fine. To avoid complications I often remove it when I practice, when I know i'm going to have to use my belly against the pole… to avoid hurting myself, cratching the pole and also because those tiny holes on x-pole dont make me feel too confortable… maybe i'm just over cautious, but.. better safe than sorry. I love my piercing, too bad there's only one belly botton or I'd do more 😛
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I have some piercing! The upper navel, the lip, I have a microdermal implant on the cheekbone, and a small piercing which nobody sees lollll except my lover I like them and I have never had problems
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My belly button healed within 2 weeks, but i put peroxide on it. they say not to however i find it does quicken the healing process and have quite a few piercings and have never had a problem with any of them on the pole except shortly after i got my nipples pierce, i hit the pole and yes that hurt. however im just being more careful now and no problems.
An LOOOOVEEE those belly rings !!!! ahhhhhhhh
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I had the exact same issue as PowerTwirl and Krissy! Had it done, took forever to heal (in fact, I don't think it was ever 'fully' healed). It was always red and moist with some sort of goo. Sorry if TMI but it's true. My skin got thinner and thinner and while I was at a concert it ripped out through my skin. I decided to have it repierced a year later and it never healed. Again my skin began to get thinner and I knew the bar was going to come out. The stinging and hotness just wasn't worth it. I think sometimes your body just rejects piercings and because of the location of the bellybar I don't think it's that surprising that this one is commonly rejected.
It just doesn't work with everyone's body. Such a shame because I did LOVE having it done. My tongue bar is my new baby though and *touch wood* it doesn't cause nearly as many problems as my bellybar did.
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Mine took at least one year to heal, however it became an issue when I started pole. One day it unscrewed itself and came undone. After that I decided to retire the piercing. It’s just too much maintanance.
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The thing that helped mine heal was taking a shot glass and filling it with warm water and epison salt and then put that on top of the piercing and just sit like that for 15 minutes or so. Worked very well. Hope that helps
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I was going to say almost exactly what daniandmoredani said. I healed my nipple piercing that way, and I didn't even have crusties (sorry to the squeamish). Perfect heal. I used sea salt though, instead of epsom, and I would warm it to as much as I could handle, put it in the shot glass and watch tv (or whatever) for 20 minutes. I did it twice a day for at least two weeks.
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While not a belly button, I had two cartilage ear piercings that attempted to reject. I had them for 5 years, and every 6 months or so, they'd get really upset and bleed. Constant crusties, and they swelled up pretty good all around the piercing. I couldn't move the rings at all, other than turning them, because the swelling hurt so much.
There are a lot of things I could have done, or that I could have been told, about having those piercings. To get one at a time, so I could sleep on one side and keep the other without pressure. To keep my hair back and away from them at all times. To not get them when I'm working a job where I have to wear a headset (I was working in a call centre).
I tried the salt, the oils and everything… I did a lot of research. By the end of 5 years, I decided that they would never heal, and I discarded them. Very little scar tissue, so that's good. They healed up perfectly fine with the rings out.
However, I wanted to say this: Using things like polysporin, or something oil based, is not recommended because it doesn't allow the wound to breathe. It's a very particular kind of thing you're trying to do, and suffocating your skin around the piercing may cause it to stop healing, reject entirely, or other nasty things.
Using salts (such as epsom salts or seasalt) can be very beneficial. I didn't find that it helped me, but there were a lot of people that I read about that found it amazing, so you can give that a try.
Otherwise, belly button piercings are, from what I've seen, just as bad as any surface piercing for being rejected. I've heard of them being rejected only to one side, so you end up with a piercing somewhere near your hipbone, and some just are rejected out. That's where the skin becomes smaller and smaller… till the piercing itself comes out.
Specifically, crusties are a fluid that our bodies use, created by the Lymph node, in order to flush out foreign objects- namely, the piece of metal you've shoved in there. They're normal, and natural for your body to be producing.
I'd say, leave the piercing in for a bit, try to be very careful of it (if it keeps wrenching or moving, perhaps put a bandage over it to keep it from doing so). Pulling or moving it when it's not healed, and discovering it bleeding, is a sure sign that whatever healing had been done was wrecked by the movement. It's a very delicate process!
And… some people heal differently than others. Some people take ages, some take days. Some don't heal up at all- such as myself.
I wish you luck!
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Wow there has been so much response to this topic, and a lot of good advice! 🙂
I know I'm not supposed to change the jewelry when it's not healed yet, but I did change my jewelry to a small quartz retainer while I had to be around/in an MRI for a research study. I have since left in in and noticed that catching on things, bumping it, or getting tugged has decreased dramatically. So I just decided to leave it in and let it heal with the retainer for a while. That plus warm salt soaks with a shot glass is making it already look better a few days later! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
The good news is, while it was crusty and bleeding (thanks to Runemist I will no longer be moving it around to see how it's doing…oops https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif), my belly button never got swollen, red, hot, or painful to touch, and so far it doesn't look like it's migrating or rejecting (but now I'm a little paranoid though! haha)
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Annieloo! How do you do the warm salt soaks? I've heard it works great but i also heard that if you put too much salt in the water it can actually harm the piercing even more. Can you tell me your measurments, please? 🙂
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Nicolette, the measurements the piercer gave me were 1/4 teaspoon of noniodized sea salt with warm (but not uncomfortably hot!) water with 1/2 cup of water. I cut it in half and estimated about 1/8 teaspoon with 1/4 cup of water so I could pour it into a shot glass 🙂
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mine took about a year and I believe I did the salt soaks for at least 7 or 8 months. I did them twice a day for the first few months and I didnt go in pools/lakes/oceans til about 8 months
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Another thing, make sure you keep top of the line metal in the piercing. I found a cool BB ring at the dollar store, put it in, and a few months later my body rejected it and my BB is now full of scar tissue and I can not get it redone.
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