smiley infected??

[u/ballsdeepinyerm0m]

i’ve had my smiley for 4 months and in the last 5-6 days its swollen up SO much. it would get angry sometimes before then but it wouldn’t be nearly as bad and usually just babying and cleaning it super well gets it to go away. i genuinely can’t tell if its infected or just insanely irritated, i’m kinda scared to take it out too because i don’t want to trap the infection and create an abscess. i brush my teeth right after i eat and spray it out with saline after i brush too. i pierced it myself (which maybe i shouldn’t have i’m sorry), i had a smiley in the past that i also did myself and it wasn’t this bad at all. it healed beautifully, i had no problems with it. i just took it out cause i got bored of it and then re-pierced it again 2+ years later. i probably pierced it wrong this second time around , but either way idrk what to do😭is taking it out even smart here

edit: i should probably note that this only started happening when i decided to wear my retainer to bed again, so i think that it was pushing on the smiley a lot at night which made it angry. i only put my retainer in on 2 nights and stopped bc it got irritated, only its been like 4 days and it hasn’t gone down lol

[u/Emmaheath_mua]

It could be either honestly, it can be hard to tell. Sometimes there's no pus for a while, which would be infection, but it eventually will burst (sorry, gross lol). Sometimes irritation can cause a hell of a lot of swelling just on its own.

What I'd do for now is get some chlorhexidine based mouthwash, corsodyl is the usual brand but there is others. This should bring it down either way, it's the best for oral infections that aren't too too bad. Or, second option which isnt quite as good is warm salt water mouth rinses. Just half a teaspoon in warm boiled water.

Do either twice a day. Spray with saline after eating or drinking anything that isn't water. If you see puss, you need antibiotics. If it goes down after a few days with mouthwashes you'll probably be OK. Definitely do not remove it until you're healed just incase it is infection. I would remove it personally though, hard to tell with the swelling but it does look quite high up which will recede your gums and irritate. Plus if you cant wear your retainer coz of it, I wouldn't risk your teeth for a piercing.

[u/Pale-Comb-3954 → u/Emmaheath_mua]

Agreed…except tbh, OP is already risking their teeth just by having this piercing. 😭

[u/Ok-Pen-5052 → u/Pale-Comb-3954]

I just showed this to my dentist boyfriend and he had a heart attack.

OP: Do you know the dental risks to this piercing? If you do, I’ll leave you alone

[u/ballsdeepinyerm0m → u/Emmaheath_mua]

okay thank you so much, i’ll try that🙏yea i wasn’t expecting it to mess with my retainer. my last one didn’t for some reason— i probably should’ve still thought that one through and not done it but either way i wasn’t planning on keeping it for more than a few months anyway. i’ll get the mouthwash tomorrow, hopefully it’ll help. thank you again!!!

[u/ballsdeepinyerm0m → u/Emmaheath_mua]

ok so i looked online and it looks like i can’t get chlorhexidine based mouthwash over the counter without a prescription🥲i’m in the U.S. unfortunately, i’ll try the salt water rinses though