What to do if the earlobe becomes red, swollen and thickened after ear piercing?

I thought there was nothing wrong with my ears after getting them pierced, but at night I felt my earlobes became swollen and thicker. What's going on?

After getting your ears pierced, the earlobe becomes red, swollen, and thickened. This may be due to local inflammation and infection. In this case, you can first apply local anti-inflammatory drugs. You can also take oral anti-inflammatory drugs to cooperate with the treatment.

This situation should be due to the phenomenon of local tissue inflammatory hyperplasia caused by local tissue stimulation. Therefore, in this case, we must keep the local skin clean. At the same time, you can apply some chloramphenicol ointment and local hot compress to promote local blood circulation.

1. Ear piercing infection turns into "elf ears"

Normally, ear piercing is done on the earlobe, but nowadays many young people choose to pierce the cartilage in pursuit of fashion, which is very harmful. If the ear piercing is not strictly disinfected, it will cause inflammation and pus discharge at the piercing site, and after healing, a prominent scar will be left on the auricle, just like the elf's ears in the movie.

2. Spread of infectious diseases

Ear piercing falls under the category of medical cosmetology and should be performed in a regular medical cosmetology hospital. However, many people often choose to pierce their ears in hair salons or shopping malls for the sake of convenience and cheapness. However, the disinfection measures in these places are not perfect. Ear piercing requires piercing the skin. If the tools are not strictly disinfected, it is easy to transmit infectious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis B.

3. Producing keloids

The dangers of ear piercing are sometimes related to the level of operation. If strict operation is not performed during the operation, bacteria, viruses or foreign objects can easily enter the wound, causing repeated infection of the wound, and ugly keloids will form over time.

4. Induce facial nerve paralysis

Nowadays, many young people like to pierce their ears on the auricle, tragus and other cartilage tissues, thinking that it would be cool. In fact, these places are prone to infection and may also damage the nerves, leading to cartilage necrosis, deformation and ear atrophy. In severe cases, it may even induce facial nerve paralysis.

If the ear piercing is just done, it will heal in no more than one week if there is no infection. Therefore, in the early stage of ear piercing, you must pay attention to prevent infection, especially on the surface of the wound, and you need to use disinfectants, such as mupirocin cream or iodine tincture. You can also take oral antibiotics, such as erythromycin, cephalexin, cefprozil, etc. If redness and swelling appear after the ear piercing, it means there is infection and antibiotics need to be used in time. At the same time, you can use liquid cold compress locally, and you can use 1% revnol solution for cold compress.