Honestly? Not.
I know I sound like my mother but I really wouldn’t recommend a Daith piercing to anyone even if they were suffering from migraines.
I got my Daith pierced on the 7th March. I had intended to get my Rook pierced but my piercer advised me that my Rook was too shallow and might reject a piercing.
I should have walked away and had a rethink but instead we looked at pictures of piercings on Instagram and I decided to get a Daith.
Ugh.
If I’d researched it at all I would never have done it. The Daith piercing is it is one of the most susceptible to infection as dirt can easily get trapped in there and that part of the ear is basically a breeding ground for nasties.
Also because you can’t easily see the piercing without a fully rotatable head and cunning use of mirrors it’s a bugger to clean. So be prepared to ask a significant other to do this super fun task occasionally. And to repeatedly tell you on a scale of 1 to gross how awful your piercing is currently looking…
Anyway… the piercing itself was surprisingly painless. I had more bleeding than with any other piercing but I didn’t think much of that. I was given saline solution by my piercer which I diligently used twice a day. Everything was going fine until about a week in when it started to get quite painful.
I was mortified by the thought of going to my Dr with what was was essentially a vanity injury so I wanted to deal with the infection myself.
I started cleaning it with boiled water, salt and tree tea oil three times a day, as well as using the bottle of saline solution. I used 8oz of boiled water to 1tsp of salt with a few drops of tea tree oil – I just divided the measurements if I wanted to make less. I also took Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling. I thought I was making some progress until the pain woke me up in the middle of the night.
My ear was pounding and hot, when I staggered to the bathroom mirror I realised it was bright red and horribly swollen too. I ended up taking more Ibuprofen, cleaning it and going to sleep with an ice pack on my ear.
It was official. I definitely needed to see a Doctor. I managed to get an appointment the next day and was prescribed 7 days of antibiotics. Thank you to my Dr for not making me feel like a complete tit.
Eventually the swelling went down with the antibiotics and continual cleaning 3 to 5 times a day. I’m a toddler mum – I really don’t have time for this kind of commitment to a piercing.
So fast forward to Easter and I’m heading off on holiday to Tenerife for a week. There is definitely a nagging worry in the back of my mind about what a nightmare another infection would be on holiday, so needless to say I came prepared with plenty of cotton buds, saline solution and painkillers. I also tried to keep my head out of the swimming pool as I really didn’t think pee filled chlorine water would help.
Mercifully I got through the holiday without any issues but a few days after we got home I developed bumps at both ends of my piercing. *cries*
Obviously my ear wasn’t happy but it wasn’t sore all the time just after cleaning so instead of going back to the Dr I went to see my piercer for some advise.
Honestly, I was quite keen on just taking the bar out and pretending that it never happened but she reassured me that this was a normal issue and advised me to give it a bit longer. The problem with removing jewellery is that if the exit wounds heal up first an infection can easily get trapped inside. Yuck.
I felt slightly better about it having talked to a professional and I’m now following the regime prescribed by my piercer to reduce the bumps.
I’m washing the piercing 3 to 5 times a day with an antiseptic spray.
Hello Dettol, my old friend!
I’m trying to be less vigorous than I previously was to avoid causing more trauma to my poor ear. After a week of Dettol I to go back to salt water and tea tree oil.
It’s working so far. There is less pain after cleaning and the swellings have definitely gone down.
I still regret my decision. A Daith piercing is a labour of love that takes a LONG time to heal…probably upwards of a year so if you’re not prepared for that kind of commitment I’d definitely avoid getting one.
I’ll keep you posted on how well it continues to heal and if you’ve got any tips please let me know.
diaryofazombiemum 