What do you use to clean a cheek piercing?

Answer 1

By cheek, I assume you mean a dimple piercing, which is a piercing which passes right through your cheek and into your mouth. To clean this, you will need to undertake two separate routines:

• Inside:

1. Boil a half-cup of water and pour into a sterile glass or disposable cup. Cool until it is just warm enough that you can touch it comfortably.
2. Take an half a teaspoon of salt and add to the water. Mix thoroughly until all the salt has dissolved.
3. Use the saline solution as you would a mouthwash. Swill it around your piercing for about a minute and rinse. (If you don't like the taste, add half a pea-sized amount of toothpaste or a few drops of mouthwash)
4. Repeat twice daily.

• Outside

1. As before, prepare a cup of salt water. (The water should be hotter than before, hotter than a bath, for instance.)
2. Press the cup over your piercing so that the salt solution can move freely around it. (You may wish to do this over a sink)
3. Hold this there for 5-10 minutes
4. Remove the cup and rinse with warm water.
5. Take an anti-bacterial soap (No shower gel or Bactine) and put some on a pad of tissue paper. Do not use a flannel because these harbour germs.
6. Gently cleanse the piercing, pushing it out with your tongue and removing any reside from the bar.
7. Rinse again with warm water.

Tips and advice:

• Do not play with your piercing with unwashed hands or allow your friends to do so.
• Do not use rubbing alcohol, Turpentine, white spirit or bleach.
• Keep good dental hygiene. (Brush your teeth!)
• Do not engage in oral contact with another person for the first six weeks. (No kissing, no oral sex)

If you follow this routine you should avoid getting an infection. If you are concerned about an infection, speak to your piercer or your GP.