How long for cartilege pierce to heal?

I got the cartilege in both my ears pierced in January, so it's been almost a year. I have to take them out during the day on workdays because I'm not allowed to wear them at work, but I wear them all evening/night and on weekends and days off. It still seems like they haven't healed. They get mildly sore fairly often, and slightly infected every once in a while (one ear every few months, gone in a day). I have to make sure to put the earring in or I have to poke through the next day.

I love the way they look, but when are the fucking things going to heal?? My lobe piercings were healed completely within a couple of months.

 

Do you have thick cartilige? that will effect healing time too. My cousin couldn't sleep on their cartlige piercing for a year....but i slept on my industiral the 3rd daylol

 

How were your ears pierced? With a needle or a gun?

 

What kind of jewelry are you using in the piercings? I had a stud in my cartilage when I first had it pierced, and since my hair would keep getting caught on the back of the stud, the piercing would always be irritated. I finally switched it to a CBR (w/nothing on it my hair could snag on) and immediately my cartilage felt better. After a week, there was not a bit of soreness left and I could even sleep on my right side again. So if you're using jewelry that your hair keeps getting snagged on, that could very well be your problem.

Also, if you've been taking your jewelry out pretty much every day since you got the piercings, then the holes may be irritated and therefore not healing properly. The holes really just need to be left alone during the healing period.

And another factor is the fact that you got them both pierced at the same time. This can commonly make both piercings heal more slowly because your body is working harder to have to heal two puncture wounds.

 

I'm thinking about getting an industrial. How long did it take for yours to heal? three days, and the pain was gone?

 

Cartilidge piercings do take longer to heal than lobe piercings. I would suggest putting a PTFE Barbell in it. They look clear so you should be ok to wear them for work if its just against the dress code and not a health and safety thing. They're really good for piercings taking a long time to heal and you can keep them in as long as you like.

 

I keep hoops in them. I don't think my cartilage is super-thick...my lobes are thicker. I have to take the earrings out during the day - no flames, but I'm in the military. I can't have anything in my cartilage in uniform. I can usually sleep on them, but every once in a while they get a little irritated. They were done with a gun. Is there anything I can do to make them heal faster?

 

For the otherside of the industrial coin...I've had mine since july and I still have trouble sleeping on that side...I purposely got mine done on the side I don't sleep on though so its peachy keen

 

yeah, i sleep on my left side, but I'd rather go through the pain then get it down on the right.

 

Ugh.. that's why you're having so much problems with them..
Cartilage is a very difficult flesh to heal, especially since there is not as much of a blood flow there as in other parts of the body/ear.

When you say "infected" do you mean they leak a fluid? Can you give more details about this?

To me, it sounds like your ears never really got a chance to heal because of your work situation, and that they are still trying to heal, but because of the situation with your work, they will never be able to successfully do that.

Personally, I would just take them out. Heck, with me when I had my cartilage pierced, I had it done with a gun, and it took me 1+ year to heal them. And even once they were healed and I tried stretching them, they always had problems and soreness.

The only people I know that have/had happy cartilage piercings got them done with a needle, at a piercing shop.

 

The pain went away for the most part after 3-5 days. Its still not competly healed that'll be a few more weeks. Right n ow i'm at a month

 

When they get infected, they leak a bit of pus. I had a big problem with it the first couple of months, with lots of pus and soreness, but now when it happens, it's just a bit, and it's gone by the next day.

No way am I taking them out. I already had to get the right one repierced because it grew in. I'm not going through that again. I LOVE the way the cartilege piercing looks and I'd rather deal with this until I leave my job (which hopefully will be before too awful long) than have to get them redone later.

 

Thanks for the info oh so strange, and kris.

 

It's probably not an infection, what you think is pus is probably lymph from your ear trying to heal.