Ear piercings and piercings on other body parts are the coolest beauty accessories you could wear.
With this in mind, you need to make sure that you have your piercings done right, and after the piercing heals, you must invest in the coolest and the best quality jewelry. Besides the basic studs, there are many other jewelry options for you.
The big question, however, is this: how soon after piercing will things heal up well? Will your ear piercing close up on its own overnight if you remove the earring? When is it okay to remove the ear piercing?
On top of all this, piercings are the current trend, and what this means is that you may be interested in some cool earrings you just spotted. Therefore, you wish to know how soon you can remove the earrings the ear was pierced with then wear the new ones you just bought without worrying about whether that piercing will close up or not.
With all these questions in mind, keep reading to find out more about ear piercings. For the most part of this article, we’ll look at the steps you should take in case your ear piercing closes overnight.
So, will your earring holes close up overnight?
Generally, you need to wear the earrings put in during piercing until your earring holes heal up well. Removing the first piercing earrings before the holes heal, for example, within the first week, would easily result in the closing up of the ear piercing.
Also, you need to keep in mind that different types of ear piercing will take different time frames to heal.
Therefore, before you decide to remove the earrings/ piercing studs out, you need to be 100% sure that everything’s healed; otherwise, you may be forced to have your ears pierced again, and that is not a joke, and it could increase the risk of infections.
That said, there are different types of ear piercings. These are tragus, rook, earlobe, and conch orbital. Of course, your entire ear could be a canvas, and you can ask the piercer to add a piercing anywhere else you are comfortable with.
However, for proper healing, especially when you want to make more than one piercing at the same time, we recommend that you get two or three holes and not more. Limiting the number of piercings to 3 means proper healing, and also, the pain will be manageable. Regarding pain levels, you need to know that the conch orbital is a tender spot on the ear, and it is the most painful, followed by the rook.
How long do ear piercings take to heal?
The healing times depend on the location of the ear piercing.
During piercing, a channel is created through your skin, and in the healing process, the body will produce skin cells/ epithelial cells along the piercing stud, from the outside-in. Once new cells have been formed all the way down the length of the piercing and around the piercing stud, the epithelial cells will mature into a fistula/ tube.
The mature fistula/ tube, once matured fully, could stay open for years (in other cases, months) after the removal of jewelry.
Some of the fistulas formed at maturity are heartier and thicker than others. Note that unlike nostril piercings, ear, navel, and nipple piercings often remain permanently open since there is no mucosa in the inner lining affecting the hole.
Besides the location of the piercing, the other thing that affects the closing time is the age of the piercing and irritation.
The latter would mess up the closing time and result in fast closing. Note, however, that you should avoid re-piercing since it not only increases the risk of infection, it also lengthens the healing time.
Why does my ear piercing close so fast? (overnight or after few days)
Without the piercing stud or jewelry, a new ear piercing may close too fast, either overnight or after a few days.
The main reason why this would happen to you is that the ear piercing is not healed fully. As mentioned above, skin cells, also called epithelial cells (and epithelial tissue), must first form around the piercing before fistula forms and matures around the jewelry.
So, on the off chance that you get the piercing stud out too soon and before it heals fully, the epithelial tissue from the other side of the piercing will coalesce and close up the hole.
Healing time for earlobe piercings is often about 4-6 weeks. This isn’t too long, and we recommend that you wait for the piercing to heal fully.
However, for a cartilage piercing, for example, piercing at the inner, upper, or at the conch would take longer to heal.
For the ear piercing to take less healing time, clean as directed, avoid exposure to harsh chemicals, and don’t disturb the ear; don’t move the earring or try manipulating it.
My ear piercing closed overnight, what should I do?
At times, you may follow all the advice given religiously, and the piercing may look healed, but against all the odds and in other cases, after months without wearing earrings despite years of healing, the piercing may close up overnight.
What should you do if this happens?
First, determine the kind of closed piercing you are dealing with. The piercing may be closed off completely, or the top/bottom half may be closed up.
If the closure is partial, you may be able to put an earring through from either side.
What if the piercing is closed off completely?
In such cases, you have one or two options – you could force it open if you don’t mind some messiness. However, we don’t recommend this approach since you could easily get the ear-piercing infected. If you have to re-pierce it all by yourself, take some precautionary measures. These include:
- Carefully clean and then disinfect the area with a clean microfiber or cotton material. You could also take a warm shower to make the ear softer and more malleable.
- Next, massage the piercing area with oil, for example, jojoba or emu oil.
- Gently pull the skin around the piercing apart in an attempt to make the piercing hole (previous location) wider
- Try to insert the earring from different angles slowly. Be very gentle and don’t force the earring. If there’s too much pain, stop.
Instead (OPTION 2), we recommend seeking professional help (perhaps this is what you should have done in the first place).
My ear piercings keep closing, what should I do?
Despite all efforts, your ear piercings may close repetitively after you remove the earring. In most cases, the reason for this is an unhealed piercing or too much disturbance (at least in our experience).
So, to avoid all that mess, we recommend seeing a professional to have it fixed – perhaps getting it professionally re-pierced.
Once this is done, just leave the piercing stud in and stop bothering it even after you think it’s healed. Keep it clean always, and just stop trying different things.
Like everything else, all your ear may need is space. So. Give it time. But if the pain is too much, you may want to leave it be. Then when you are ready, get another piercing, perhaps closer to the original piercing, but not at the same spot.
Conclusion
Dealing with a closed piercing may be frustrating, but the recommendations above should help. But never force things.
The worst that could happen, besides infections, include ugly scarring, misalignment, excessive scar tissue, and you may never be able to re-pierce.
If you are struggling with the closure, get a hypoallergenic earring, preferably a stud that you can comfortably sleep in and let the piercing heal. You can also increase the size of the stud months after the healing to reduce the risk of closure.
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