If you’re thinking about getting a piercing for the first time, you may be nervous. One common question that people have is Can You Swim After Getting Ears Pierced? The direct answer to that question is that it depends on what type of piercing you get. It is best to not swim for 24 hours afterwards, although 24 hours may vary by person.
For your safety, it’s best to wait until the area has healed fully. Suppose your piercing is an ear cartilage top cartilage to tip cartilage or any other type of cartilage placed in sensitive parts of your body. It’s also best to allow at least two weeks for healing.
Why Is It Important to Wait Two Weeks Before Swimming?
Let’s start with the basic anatomy of the ear. When you get a new piercing, there are some risks that you need to understand. One is that the main part of your ear canal is lined with cartilage, which is covered in small holes called canals. The other risk involves bacteria and viruses, which can quickly grow if they get inside your piercing. These bacteria and viruses include E. coli, which causes stomach ailments, and hepatitis viruses.
As an important rule of thumb, it is not safe for you to get in the water until two weeks after your piercing has healed. If you are experiencing pain during your healing process when you’ve gone swimming, then you should take a break from the water for at least 30 minutes.
If you insist on getting in the water after two weeks, there are some things that you should know.
Piercings include a small amount of fluid in the ear canal. This is good because it keeps the piercing clean to prevent infection. You should make sure that you don’t introduce any new bacteria to your piercing by going swimming after you’ve healed.
How to Cover Ear Piercing for Swimming
Make sure that you need to keep your piercing dry by swimming with a cap on. While swimming without a cap may cause some discomfort, it is potentially much worse if it gets wet and dirty from splashing around or if there are bacteria in the pool or prevention of infection from the bacteria in the water.
Some piercings have been known to become infected if they were kept moist for too long without being closed up after swimming. If you’ve been swimming for a long time or if your piercing is on your face, it’s best to take a shower and dry everything off.
After getting a piercing, the worst thing you can do is rubbing strong spirits or other forms of chemicals in it. These chemicals will kill the cells around the piercing, which could lead to scarring. The skin around the ear canal can become infected or have adverse reactions if it encounters chemicals.
What Are Some Suggestions for Swimming After Getting a New Piercing?
You can reduce damage from water by using earplugs, which are typically made from silicone or wax substances. These are available at most pharmacies, jewellery supply stores, and online. These are useful to keep water out or to help you sleep.
Another way you can reduce the damage from swimming after getting a new piercing is by using Aquaphor cream, which helps to heal your piercing faster. It helps the healing process be quick since it’s designed for wounds that are scabbing or healing slightly slower. The unique feature on this product is that it’s made for cracked skin, so it’s completely safe to use around your ear piercing, even after you’ve been swimming in the pool.
As a last resort, it’s best to use a piercing plug to keep your piercing clean and healthy while swimming in the pool. These plugs are made especially for piercings. They come in small sizes, but they can be reshaped to fit most different types of piercings in your ear canal. These are designed with holes in them so you can put in earrings or other jewellery without damaging your healing process.
Is Chlorine Bad for A New Piercing?
Exposure to high levels of chlorine can indeed lead to skin irritation and swelling. Exposure to chlorinated water does not necessarily mean that you will have a problem with piercings. Chlorine is often found in pools and hot tubs and can cause problems with some piercings.
The skin is consisted of connective tissues and living cells called epithelial cells. These cells are responsible for maintaining healthy skin by protecting their contents from chemicals and moisture loss. Epithelial cells of the skin are designed to absorb small molecules like oxygen and carbon dioxide through their membrane-lined surface area. When chlorine is absorbed into the skin, it can alter the body’s delicate pH balance. Chlorine can also cause inflammation in the skin by altering this balance. Swelling and irritation are common symptoms of chlorine exposure on or around your skin.
Is It Bad to Swim with Newly Pierced Ears?
If you swim right after getting a fresh piercing, your chances of infection are higher than if you wait. That’s because piercings are susceptible to bacteria that can grow in the warm, moist environment of the body. And if your piercing is exposed for several hours or days to high levels of chlorine or chlorinated water, the infection risk increases even more.
Even after swimming, your piercings will still be an unnecessary risk. With all the advances in piercing technology, piercings can be cleaned and disinfected quickly and easily. And if you do get an infection, traditional earrings can be replaced very simply with a pair of post-it earrings or studs. If you’re concerned about this risk, you could even wear swim caps or swim goggles.
What Are the Risks of Ear Piercing?
It’s quite common to see people showing off their piercings with pride and an air of self-assurance; here are some things that no one should do after getting their ear pierced:
1) Don’t use earrings that are larger than the piercing. Using larger studs will cause your ear to stretch unnaturally. Don’t use objects other than earrings to put in your piercings. Your earlobes were not made for carrying heavyweight like that.
2) Don’t use earrings that are smaller than the piercing. Because the hole is stretched out, it is more prone to ripping along with the skin around it when you remove them. You might also experience pain when you wear your studs afterwards.
3) Don’t wear multiple earrings at once. While you might think this looks cool, it prevents your ear from healing properly and increases the risk of infection and picking at your piercings.
4) Don’t remove your earrings all the time. Research has found that piercings heal up to 3 months faster if left alone. This is because when you constantly remove your jewellery, it puts extra pressure on the area and shortens the time it takes for your piercing to heal.
5) Don’t use unsterilized jewellery or gadgets. Even though you think that a new earring cleaner or a new gold stud will be harmless, the chances are that they aren’t clean enough for your new piercing and may cause infections.
6) Don’t freeze anything into your ear. You can do this by putting your piercing in a freezer bag for 30 minutes to an hour before using it. This is one of the ideal ways to disinfect your jewellery. Disinfecting does not mean that you should never rinse the jewellery off again once you are done with it, though! If you are concerned about this option, use hot water when rinsing off after sterilizing.
7) Don’t attempt to pierce your ears yourself. There are plenty of risks involved in doing this, not to mention that you will be unable to gauge how it looks. It also isn’t very sanitary.
8) Don’t use hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol to clean your earrings. This is because it can cause reactions with the metal if you have sensitive skin, or it can leave residue on the jewellery, which can cause infections!
9) Don’t take your earrings out too early. If you start to see redness around the area after a few weeks or months, then go ahead and remove them for a while so that the area has time to heal around the hole. Otherwise, if you remove them too early, the hole may close up.
10) Don’t expose your ears to extreme heat or cold. For example, this might be a good time to put on some earmuffs if you go skiing. The same goes for swimming or being around really hot showers or shower heads that are too high pressure.
How Do You Know If Your Piercing Is Infected?
1. Infection
If you have an infection after piercing, remove the earrings immediately and contact your doctor for further instruction. Your doctor and a professional piercer can tell you if the earrings need to be removed until the infection has cleared. However, some piercings may remain irritated even after an infection has been cleared because a piece of a crust or a bit of dead tissue is caught in your earring hole. In this instance, it is probably best to avoid putting back in pierced earrings until you can go to a professional piercer for further instruction.
2. Pain
If you experience pain after piercing, the piercing may still be healing. Sometimes, the pain comes from overdoing it when putting your earrings in or taking them out. If you are experiencing intense pain, rest your ears for a few days, and then proceed with your earring to help prevent further discomfort. Short-term discomfort will gradually become less intense over time. However, if severe pain persists, contact your piercer for further instruction to see if there’s something wrong with the piercing or if the earrings need to be replaced. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your ears for any signs of infection.
3. Swelling
A piercing may swell immediately after the procedure, but this swelling should subside after a few hours. If significant swelling extends beyond the first day or two, then something more serious is probably wrong with the piercing or your body’s response to it, and you should contact your doctor for further instruction.
4. Itching
As your ear heals after healing, you may experience itching on and around the earlobe (and sometimes even inside it) as your body kicks into action to help heal the wound. This is normal and should fade as time goes on, especially if you keep your ear clean, keep it dry and free from infections and discontinue using products that can irritate your ears. However, the itching will not go away until the piercing has healed completely. Contact your piercer for further instruction if you experience an intense itching sensation that interferes with your daily life.
5. Skin Discolouration
As the ear heals and the piercing stretches to accommodate the earrings you wear, you may notice it turns darker or more purple than its original colour. Some itching and irritation may accompany this. If your piercing continues to darken as it stretches, it is usually normal and nothing to fret about. However, if some tenderness or pain accompanies the discolouration, or if it persists beyond a few weeks of healing (beyond the point where you begin wearing earrings regularly), contact your piercer for further instruction.
There are no general restrictions after ear piercing. Earrings are safe to wear, according to the FDA. However, if you have an infection or if your ears are frequently sore, it may be best to avoid wearing your earrings for a few days so the irritation doesn’t spread any further. The good news is that ear infections don’t usually recur after healing, but you should consult with your doctor about troubleshooting when necessary.
Can You Swim in The Pool With Earrings?
If you’re wondering whether you can swim with earrings, the answer is yes. However, there are some caveats to keep in mind. If your ears are pierced, it’s important to check with your doctor first to determine if they allow the weights of earrings to cause too much pressure on cartilage or other sensitive parts of the ear.
More importantly than that is how long you should be wearing them before swimming – short-term wear of just a few hours may be permitted, but long-term wear (several days) will need approval from your doctor as well as individual instructions on how to remove them safely.
You can also try wearing earrings underwater, though the risk of irritation or infection is much greater if water touches the pierced ears or you get them wet. No swimming with earrings is to be performed in freshwater bodies, such as rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds.
Be sure to check your medical record for warnings about earring use in swimming pools before trying it out. Earring wearers out there: you can wear them with no caveats in swimming pools. Just make sure to take them off the moment you enter the water and don’t forget to sanitize after your swim!
We believe that we have given you a thorough answer to the question, Can you swim after getting ears pierced?
References
https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-basics/tattoos/caring-for-pierced-ears
