How to treat a tongue piercing infection

Identify an infection

An infection can often be confused for irritation.
After getting a piercing, swelling, minor pain, and some redness are normal and will recede within a few days without any treatment. Some ice chips will help with the discomfort.

An infection, however, will have the same symptoms but is usually accompanied by a discharge of puss that can be yellow, green, or even brown in colour, bleeding, a build-up of tissue around the piercing, foul odour, foul taste, excessive pain, and fever.

Talk to the piercer

If you are unsure if the symptoms you have are normal for a piercing, go back to the shop where you had it done and ask the piercer for advice.

He or she will know what is normal for piercing after-effects and may even be able to offer you a solution on how to heal a minor infection so if doesn't become a big problem.

It is recommended that if the infection isn't severe, you talk to your piercer first, as going straight to a doctor will result in your piercing being removed.

See your doctor

If your piercing is severely infected, a professional piercer will advise you to seek medical attention.
However, if you are displaying the symptoms in step one, then it is probably a good idea to see your doctor anyway.

The doctor will request you to remove the piercing to give medical aid, as the infection could be inside the wound and will require flushing.

As much as you want to keep your piercing, if it has reached this point of infection, it is already too late, and you need to remove it.

Treatment

If the infection is not severe and your piercer thinks you can deal with it on your own, he or she should give you some advice on how best to take care of it. There are several different methods of taking care of an infected piercing, and none are wrong, but you need to find the method that works for you, personally.

It is advisable to follow the advice of your piercer, but if you want to try and deal with it yourself, then applying rubbing alcohol to the affected area a few times a day can help kill the bacteria that is causing the infection. Many people swear by the use of peroxide, but peroxide kills bacteria *and* white blood cells, which are important for fighting off infections.