This is a follow-up story and a heads-up to anyone considering a true lowbret or a cheek piercing. Last fall I decided to get a pair of lowbrets, and after researching all I could on lowbrets I was left unsatisfied with the knowledge from the few experiences written on such a piercing. I read about cheek piercings, and talked to my piercer and thought I knew all the risks involved but no matter what you're prepared for.. shit can always happen. The piercings went great! They looked amazing and healing was pretty uneventful through the next couple months. I was so happy with them and knew more information needed to be published about such a rare piercing that I wrote an experience of my own indicating procedure, healing, etc. etc. It wasn't until after they were fully healed that everything went wrong.
At A Glance Author Innocent Angel Contact Innocent Angel@bme.anon IAM Innocent Angel When Six months ago I'm a soccer player and have a routine I follow for soccer when it comes to my piercings. I take out whatever possible including most of my earrings, septum, labret, etc. etc. but due to the placement of my lowbrets it is incredibly difficult for me to remove them and especially difficult to get them back in. It is because of this that I simply put tape over my lowbrets and play with them in. It was during one of my games that I accidentally took the soccer ball in the face and it all began. The force of the ball impacted directly into my left lowbret which instantly started to swell. My face started to swell all night to the point that when I went to bed my post felt really tight from the swelling. I tried to take it out but was unable to, so I tried a bit longer then went to bed feeling that by morning it would be okay.
Through-out the night my face hurt and so I would wake up and get a cup of water which would temporarily help ease the pain enough to get back to sleep for a couple hours before repeating. When I woke up that morning my face was swollen really bad on the left side especially around my lowbret and there was dried blood on the outside hole. I went to the bathroom to try and remove the jewellery again but this time when I reached inside my mouth I could no longer feel the inside post when it hit me why my face was even more swollen and yet I could see so much post showing on the outside. The flatback of my labret stud was pulled into my cheek from the pressure of the swelling and overnight the skin inside my mouth grew back sealing the jewellery in my cheek.
I was so scared and knew I had two options and the first was almost unthinkable. It's hard to think that hospitals aren't your friend and would do more damage than good... but when it comes to body modification especially in this province I live in, doctors are basically your enemy. I knew that if I went to the hospital I would surely lose the piercing but more importantly was that they would have no pity and cut the piercing from the outside and leave me with a couple of stitches and a nice scar that "would serve as a reminder." My only other option was to go to my piercer and see if he could make a cut inside my mouth and push the labret backing through.
When I got to the shop my piercer knew something wasn't right and I told him everything that happened. We discussed going to the hospital and I told him my reasons why I was trying to avoid going there unless I had no other choice and he agreed on my view of how I'd be treated. We talked about what course of action to take and after letting him know how badly I wanted to keep the piercing especially since it's one in a pair, we decided to take the 7/16 flatback post out and put a barbell in for re-healing purposes. He got everything organized for the procedure, washed, gloved up and we began.
He used a razor-sharp 12 gauge needle to make an incision inside my mouth and pushed the back of the post through the fresh cut and was able to remove the bead on the outside and take the jewellery out. I was so relieved to have it out but because of the already swollen cheek but because of the added trauma it just endured my face started to swell rapidly and we were forced to use a 7/8 barbell for the next week and a half. After all the swelling was gone we switched back to my flatback 7/16 which fit perfectly again and kept up aftercare as if it was a fresh piercing because in most aspects it was. I haven't had any problems with them since then, but I make sure I am able to unscrew and remove the jewellery whenever I need to incase of emergencies. I thank my piercer even to this day for helping me out in saving my piercing and for leaving no visible damage or scars around my lowbret.
In my final closing statement I just want to make sure people do not misinterpret any information I have written. I am not trying to scare anyone from getting such a piercing, just informing anyone interested in lowbrets or a related piercing that due to the amount of swelling that can occur in an area from trauma to be careful. Nor am I saying that your last option should be to seek medical help if in trouble or desperate need of medical care, be smart and listen to your body and your concious. IF YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD SEE A DOCTOR, DO SO! Don't try and fix things yourself because even though I'm lucky (if it wasn't for my knowledge and my experienced piercer things could have went horribly wrong) you might not be.