Before you take a trip to the body piercer, you may want to investigate some of the risks associated with navel piercing. Navel piercings, known as surface piercing, involve the insertion of a barbell or ring through a narrow section of skin instead of a flap of tissue. Healing times are slow for surface piercings and the risks involved with navel piercing are much higher than other forms of body piercing.
Infection
Infection is a common problem with navel piercing. In order to avoid infection, the piercing requires cleaning at least twice a day for the first nine months, using an antiseptic solution containing benzalkonium chloride. Despite the best efforts to keep the navel piercing clean, rubbing of clothing and exposure to the elements prevent most navel piercings from completely healing for at least two years.
Signs of serious infection include oozing, continuous bleeding, pain, and swelling. Colby Health and Counseling Services recommends seeking medical attention for navel infections that do not show signs of improvement within two weeks.
Allergic Reaction and Rejection
If you have sensitivity to metal, the culprit is probably nickel. For this reason, nickel-free jewelry is usually recommended for navel piercing in order to avoid itching, redness, swelling and eventual infection. Surgical steel, titanium, and 14 and 18 karat gold jewelry is best for navel piercing.
Rejection is another risk related to navel piercing. The Body Jewellery Shop explains that rejection is common with navel piercings. When your body rejects a piercing, it pushes the jewelry out towards the surface of the skin, eventually causing the jewelry to fall out. During the rejection process, your skin can become red and swollen. Severe scarring known as keloiding may also occur.
Keloiding
Keloid scars associated with navel piercing are often a result of rejection and the skin's attempts to defend itself. The American Osteopathic College of Dermatology reveals that keloids grow above the surface of the skin, forming layer upon layer of scar tissue. If you have dark pigmented skin, you are more prone to keloids if your body rejects a navel piercing.
Keloids tend to be unsightly and do not go away over time. The only way to remove a keloid is with surgery. For this reason, if you are prone to keloids, you may want to steer clear of navel piercings.
Member Comments
futurecode October 2
This article is not only poorly written, the author is also massively misinformed.
Your Introduction:
First off, Navel piercing and Surface piercing are two totally different types of body modification. A navel piercing is any piercing placed on the inward curve, or indention, of the navel area where a Surface piercing is a piercing placed on any flat surface of the body, hence the name ?Surface.?
Area on infection:
As with any piercing, or cut, scrape, stitch ??? really any open wound, infection is possible, but is in no way a ?common problem? if pierced properly, with proper jewelry and taken care of properly. The use of benzalkonium chloride should be avoided as 1) it is man mad chemical so you could be directing someone to expose their body to something they may allergic to and 23) bacteria can start living in a benzalkonium chloride solution after 4 ? 6 weeks. The statement that navel piercing takes two plus years to heal is also way off base. Again, if pierced properly, with proper jewelry and taken care of properly and navel piercing usually takes anywhere from 4 ? 12 months to heal.
futurecode October 2
Area on Allergic Reaction and Rejection:
You are correct about a decent part of the population, particularly females, are allergic to nickel, and to be on the safe side people should be piercing with implant grade metals. But to genericly say surgical steel and titanium is misleading. There are many different grades of surgical steel and itanium. Your pots and pans are most likely make out of surgical steel, you wouldn?t want to put that metal in your body. To be safe, use only 316lvm-f138 sugical steel and 6al4v-136 titanium to be specific (and safe!) and avoid any gold for the initial piercing regaurdless of karat.
Rejction is possible with any piercing, more so with navels, but, again, if pierced properly (by a practitioner who knows what a navel prone to rejection looks like), with proper jewelry and taken care of properly, you have a high success rate.
Area on Keloiding :
This section blew me away the most as at least the terminology and ?issues? talked about previously were in the ?ballpark?. Keloiding, while permanent, is possible with a navel or any other piercing but is not common at all. It?s actually very uncommon. What you meant to talk about is what?s called hypotrophic scarring (EG: a bump or pimple looking growth on or near a piercing hole). This is a non permanent kind of scarring that is caused by irritation 9IE: not cleaning, over cleaning, bumping, snagging, catching, allergic reaction to low grade jewelry, exposing to chemicals, etc..) It will go away with time as long as that irritation(s) is removed.
futurecode October 2
I will be relived if this is posted and have a chance to correct these gross misconceptions and errors and massively relieved that you are moving any from being a licensed cosmetologist and certified skin-care specialist. Hopefully ESU provides a better base of education than wherever you trained previously.