I have to start by letting everyone know that the piercers involved in this experience learned a valuable lesson, and that it is very important to be aware of your body and know the risks involved when adding a little to your image.
At A Glance Author RoxyDevlin Contact spazzstarr@email.com IAM RoxyDevlin When Five years ago Artist fellow piercer Studio Life Itself Location Barrie, Ont. I have been piercing for about four years, every piercer knows that you learn from your mistakes and that the only way to learn is to make mistakes, but i cannot stress it enough, size your jewelry before inserting it into ones body!
It all started with my idea to pierce my cheeks, I had never done this before with any clients and neither had Ian, were were both very new into the industry (fresh apprentices) and were dealing with clientele that never really wanted anything other then navels and eyebrows we hadn't been exposed to the mod world on some levels. We talked about the piercings and agreed that he would pierce me and that we would both treat it as a learning experience, it was a date.
I went over to the studio that Ian was working out of we talked about placement and procedure, I didn't have dimples so we would have to position them in a spot that looked most natural. The marks were there. We had chosen to use one inch barbells because I wanted to have the "dimple effect" right away big mistake. The piercings went well, virtually painless and for about a week everything seemed o.k there was some pressure but their seemed to be little slack on the jewelry. I remember waking up in the morning and feeling discomfort on the right side of my face an achy itchy pain, there was also a hard ring around the piercing (internally) I knew right away that there was an infection and that i had to see a doctor immediately.
Doctors five years ago knew little about bod mods and jewelry, he gave me amoxacillin and an anti-inflammatory, i had to go to work. within a half an hour of being there my face had swollen out to be balloon size and the piercing swelled and filled so full of infection that the half of the barbell on the inside had gotten sucked into my face and the outer skin had closed overtop of it, not to mention the green and yellow blood stained infection that at this point was dripping out of my face. Leaving the shop immediately I headed home to ice it and get some rest.
Hours later it was time to go and see the man that I apprenticed with and get this jewelry out, I knew that by removing the jewelry I ran the risk of trapping the infection and making it more internal but I had antibiotics, so I could fight it off, wrong. We couldn't remove the jewelry it was extremely painful and damaging, I headed to the emergency room the doctor froze my face and made an x like incision around the piercing pulling the jewelery from the outside eventually removing the barbell in one piece, he inserted a wick inside my cheek to allow the infection to drain, sent me home saying that I had to come in tomorrow to have it removed and that i should take out the other side to prevent anything else from happening, I healed well and was left with some scarring, now with permanent dimples due to the pressure the tissue around my piercings had to endure. I massaged vitamin E oil into the scars for about 2months that seemed to work very well i am left with minimal sca rring and a little dimples, i guess they have grown on me everyone seems to think that i was born with them so they can't be that bad.
After everything was said and done it was time to find out why I reacted so badly to the piercings besides the fact that the jewelry was too small, we all know that adding to things but what sparked the infection? I was sticking to proper aftercare cleaning the insides and out sides with a sea salt, which I had done with all of my oral piercings so I know that wasn't the cause, I had made no oral or sexual contact of any kind, solution, dentist.
Visiting my local dentist seemed to be the right answer, I explained to him what had happened, he explained to me that your spit glands which are always active are generally located in between your second and third molars. My piercings were pierced right through my spit glands never allowing them to begin the healing process properly, I am not saying that they couldn't be healed but adding the extra tension from the barbells and you've got a big problem.
To end this experience I would just like to let all of you fellow mods know that you should definitely research a little on the bodies anatomy before puncturing it in any way, listen to what it is saying and never go for what is most pleasing esthetically, rather what is most pleasing for your systems sake, cheek piercings swell and are not as easy to heal as many other oral piercings, talk to your piercer before hand so that you both have a good understanding of each other, but most importantly never underestimate what can happen.
Thanks Sarah Body Piercer