Is it normal for swelling after lip piercing

OTC creams and ointments, such as Neosporin, are thick and can trap bacteria under the skin. This may lead to more irritation, making your infection worse. Rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and other antiseptics can damage healthy skin cells. This can leave your piercing more susceptible to invading bacteria and prolong your infection. When it comes to lip piercings, you have to more than just clean the piercing site.

You have to keep the rest of your mouth clean, too. This can help prevent the bacteria in your mouth from spreading to and getting trapped inside your piercing. You may already know that daily flossing can help remove plaque and debris from in between your teeth and help prevent gingivitis. But it can also help prevent harmful bacteria from reaching your lips and further irritating your piercing.

Floss at night before brushing. From an oral health standpoint, brushing twice a day is just as important as flossing. You may also consider brushing midday to help prevent bacteria buildup.

Toothpaste is unlikely to harm your lip piercing, but make sure you rinse thoroughly. If you do use mouthwash, follow the product directions as you normally would. Avoid alcohol-based rinses. What you eat matters, especially when you have a wound — in this case, an infected piercing — in your mouth. As your lip piercing heals, focus on foods that are soft and unlikely to get caught on your jewelry.

This includes mashed potatoes, yogurt, and oatmeal. Anything chewy may require an additional salt rinse after eating. Water should be your drink of choice at this time. Alcohol can act as a blood thinner as well as damage the skin cells around the piercing. This may prolong your healing time and increase your risk of complications. Coffee may also have blood-thinning effects. Learning to evaluate everything that may come into contact with your lip — and adjusting accordingly — can help you reduce the amount of bacteria, debris, and dirt that gets into the piercing.

You should continue your daily cleansing and soaking routine unless your piercer advises otherwise. Keep up with this routine until all symptoms subside and until your lip piercing completely heals. They can take a look at the piercing and make specific recommendations for cleaning and care. A tongue piercing officially takes six and eight weeks to completely heal. However, your individual healing process depends entirely on how you care….

Headaches are a less common side effect of piercings. This helps reduce complications from friction against gums and teeth. Too much friction and irritation will delay healing and could cause infection, which would likely cause more swelling. If your lip piercing is increasingly swelling after the first few days of healing, you may have an infection. You may also be facing an allergic reaction to the metal in the piercing.

You can tell if you have an infection because swelling will normally be accompanied by fever, tenderness, or pain. If the swelling interferes with your ability to talk, eat, or breathe, you need to seek medical attention right away. Before you get a lip piercing, you should ask yourself these questions to get ahead of any complications that lead to swelling, or worse:. Getting a piercing from anyone except a trained professional is a mistake. You need a sterile environment to prevent complications.

A professional also knows how to pierce without causing undue trauma to the area. Traumatizing piercings can lead to very detrimental healing, scarring, excessive swelling, and infection. A trained piercer will also be able to properly advise you on aftercare, as well as be a resource when and if you have questions during the healing process.

A high-quality piercing professional will try to prevent any possible complications. But ask yourself, "How much do I really know about lip piercings? As cool as lip rings are, there are a few facts you'd probably like to know about beforehand to make you feel a bit more comfortable going into your piercing appointment. So, we reached out to a celebrity piercer to get all the answers for you. Ahead, his expert advice for what you should know before getting your lip pierced.

Placement: Popular placements include under the bottom lip, centered on the indent beneath the nostrils, side of the upper lip. Aftercare: Practice good mouth hygiene by brushing your teeth twice a day, rinsing with alcohol-free mouthwash times daily, not smoking, and avoiding alcohol.

A lip piercing is, well, a piercing on your upper or lower lip. One of the reasons a lip piercing is always such a popular choice is thanks to the sheer amount of style options available and ways to customize them. No placement is better than the other, but there might be one that better suits your personal style.

According to Thompson, there are several popular placements: First, the labret, which is typically underneath the bottom lip in the center, but can also exit out the middle of the bottom lip a vertical labret. Next, you have the philtrum aka Medusa , which is in the center of the indentation underneath your nostrils. You also have side-lip piercings, and when those are on the upper lip, they're often referred to as Monroe or Madonna, depending on the side of the face.

A lip piercing is going to hurt, but it's tolerable. Like most body piercings, the procedure itself will be quick, and the biggest concern will be the aftercare. Of course, with the sensitive nature of the piercing placement, you'll need to be extra careful not to snag, bite, or otherwise accidentally bump or move your jewelry in your new piercing. This type of friction can not only prolong the healing but also cause unnecessary added discomfort.

Brace yourself, because the healing time for a lip piercing can be anywhere from three to six months, depending on your body and how you heal.

As with any piercing, there are important steps to keeping the area clean and preventing infection. Says piercer Cozmo Faris, "Use an alcohol-free mouthwash three to five times a day to flush the inside of the piercing. These flushes should happen anytime after the person eats or drinks.

For the outside of the piercing, a sterile saline wound wash such as H2Ocean or Neilmed should be used twice daily to irrigate the area; a five-second saturation should do the trick followed by letting the area air-dry. Possibly the most important thing to do to encourage the healing process? Be patient. In other words, be diligent about taking care of the area for the first three months, and help out your immune system by eating right , staying hydrated , and avoiding stress.