When people get their first body piercing done, be it nose, ear, lip, tongue or navel – they start worrying about whether it will heal properly.

Sometimes they clean the fresh piercing TOO much, twisting the jewelry and irritating the piercing. In this case your body piercing aftercare attempts can prevent your body from healing the wound rather than heal it! When you get a new piercing, use fragrance-free, anti-bacterial soap and saline soaks. If you find that the soap and soaks irritate your piercing, try to let the wound heal naturally for a short while, using only water to clean the wound.

Leave It  Alone!

The miraculous fact is that our body is capable of healing itself without any help. The piercing is simply a small hole and when done safely by an experienced professional, can easily heal. And many folks do very well without applying antibacterial soap or saline solution to speed up the healing.

Antibacterial soap can clear out the resident and Transient Bacteria from the body, but when it is used for a long time, it can also kill the bacteria that would help fight the bacteria.

As long as you leave it alone, any minor swelling will naturally subside. Of course, you must never touch it or try twisting it. If it does happen to get dirty, you can use clean distilled water or boiled water and a cotton bud to clean it, after which it can be patted dry with a tissue. It goes without saying that if it is just wet, then patting it dry with a tissue is enough. Don’t forget to wash your hands with antibacterial soap before you clean your piercing.

While exercising or showering, you may want to cover the piercing to prevent sweat and moisture. You can use inexpensive cling wrap and tape the edges down instead of investing in bandage.

About the only cleaning agent you will ever need is clean water, if at all you need to clean the piercing. But even this is unnecessary in most cases. For most people, applying cleaning agents or medication only causes irritation around the piercing, further slowing down the healing process.

For many folks ‘Leave it alone’ really works because the concept of the body healing itself is an approach that is safe and promotes quick body piercing healing process! And most likely you’ll end up with a successfully healed piercing if you happen to be healthy and follow the right hygiene. So it’s up to you to decide if you need any extra medication to clean the body piercing. You can also Leave It  Alone!

One extra point worth mentioning here is the question of whether to remove your jewelry if you have an infection. Jewelry should only be removed as a last resort. Removing the jewelry can cause the wound to close and the infection will be caught under your skin, thus forming an abscess. If you have an infection and feel you must remove your jewelry, consult a piercing or medical professional immediately and do not remove the jewelry unless advised to do so. Leave it alone!!