Oral AFTERCARE

    • Alcohol-free and hydrogen peroxide-free mouth rinse. Or you can use dry mouth oral rinse for hydrationPlain clean water. Bottled or filtered water is preferred.

    • Packaged sterile saline solution with no additives (read the label). This is not for internal use but external use only (like cleaning the outside of your lip piercing).

    • Regardless of the brand of saline, the can should list sterile and isotonic. The only ingredients included should be water and 0.9% or 9mg/ml sodium chloride. Mixing your own sea salt solution is no longer a suggested practice from the APP. Mixing your own sea salt solution will commonly result in the product being far too salty and strong. This can over dry the piercing and interfere with healing.

    • Do not use contact solution, eye drops, or nasal rinse products on your piercing.

    • Wash your hands thoroughly prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.

    • Keeping good oral hygiene practices is important in maintaining a healthy mouth and piercing.You will want to floss, brush and use mouth rinse at least twice a day. It is vital to not overuse the mouth rinse.

    • Gently brush the jewelry with a clean toothbrush regularly to avoid plaque build up.

    • Rinse with water (bottled or filtered) thoroughly after every time you eat, drink or smoke.

    • Wash your hands thoroughly prior to cleaning or touching your piercing for any reason.

    • Be sure to rinse your piercing thoroughly with warm water in the shower once a day. Then rinse with saline twice a day.

    • Gently remove any discharge or crust that may have built up on your jewelry, then dry the area carefully with gauze.

    • Swelling of the area, bleeding off and on, temporary bruising or discoloration, tenderness or discomfort in the area of a new piercing is not unusual.  This can be greatly reduced by gently sucking on clean chipped or shaved ice, or small cubes are best.  The majority of swelling usually lasts for only 3-5 days.

    • You may feel aching, pinching, tightness or other unpleasant sensations off and on for several days or longer.

    • Don’t be alarmed if you see a fairly liquid, yellowish secretion coming from the piercing.  This is blood plasma, lymph and dead cells which is perfectly normal.  All healing piercings secrete, it just looks different inside the mouth as it doesn’t have a chance to dry and form a crust as it does on ear or body piercings.  This is not pus, but indicates a healing piercing.

    • A piercing may seem healed before the healing process is complete. This is because piercings heal from the outside in, and although it feels fine, the tissue remains fragile on the inside.

    • Be patient and keep cleaning throughout the entire healing period.

    • Plaque may form on tongue jewelry, commonly on the bottom of the ball and/or post.  Scrub your barbell with a firm toothbrush (gently during healing).  After healing you may use Plax or another anti-plaque product.  If you are diligent with oral hygiene the jewelry will not need to be removed for cleaning, and it can usually be left in even for routine visits to the dentist.

    • Even healed piercings can shrink or close in minutes after having been there for years! This varies from person to person; if you love your piercing, keep jewelry in- do not leave the hole empty. Carry a clean ball in case of loss or breakage to be safe.

    • Once the swelling is down, it is vital to have your piercer replace the post portion of bar style jewelry with a shorter post to avoid intra-oral damage.  Consult your piercer for their downsize policy.

    • Never touch your piercing with dirty hands!

    • No oral sexual contact including French (wet) kissing or oral sex during the entire initial healing period, even in a monogamous relationship. (If you had a large cut you would not allow anyone to spit into it!  This is essentially the same thing.)

    • Reducing smoking or quitting is highly advisable. Smoking increases risks and can lengthen the healing time.

    • Avoid aspirin, large amounts of caffeine, and alcohol (this includes all beer, wine and hard liquor) for the first few days.  These can cause additional swelling, bleeding and discomfort.

    • Refrain from eating spicy, salty, acidic, or hot temperature foods and drinks for a few days.

    • Do not play with your piercing or click the jewelry against your teeth.  Undue stress on the piercing can cause the formation of unsightly and uncomfortable scar tissue, migration, chipping of teeth, wearing of the gum tissue and other complications.

    • Do not use Listerine or other mouthwash with alcohol. It can irritate the area and delay healing.