A concern with any piercing is developing an infection. As long as you are the only one who is wearing the tongue ring, conditions such as hepatitis or HIV are not a significant risk, and you can effectively clean and sterilize the ring at home. These methods are all designed to be doable using basic household items.
Step 1
Wear single-use gloves (which can be bought at most drugstores). This is a critical step for sterilization, because once you sterilize your tongue ring, if you touch it with your bare hand (or any skin), it can be immediately contaminated.
Step 2
Immerse the tongue ring in rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide for at least 1 hour to completely sterilize it.
Step 3
Immerse in a bleach solution. You can use either pure bleach or a mixture of half bleach and half water. Bleach sterilization takes only a few minutes.
Step 4
Immerse your tongue ring in boiling water. This method has been used by field medics for years and has also been shown to work well for urinary catheters. For additional sterilization, you can put your tongue ring in a pressure cooker for an hour, which works similarly to an autoclave, which is used to sterilize medical equipment.
Step 5
Put the tongue ring in a flame. This method should be used only as a last resort, but holding the tongue ring in the middle part of a flame for a few seconds can somewhat effectively sterilize it.
Things You'll Need
- Latex gloves
- Rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide
- Bleach
- Boiling water
- Pressure cooker (optional)
