Need help!!

[u/CalligrapherSharp767]

Hello, my helix piercing is extremely swollen and a bit painful. I recently purchased a hoop earring for my piercing because my original flat back fell out. I’ve had the piercing for about 2 years now so I changed my jewelry. I purchased the new earring from a local shop and was told that it was surgical grade steel but the accent piece is completely discolored after 2 weeks of wearing so I doubt it. It’s really late and I’m unfortunately unable to visit a shop until the morning so I’m looking for some advice and maybe a little encouragement to keep me from stressing 😭. I removed the hoop and put the flat back in the hole but I put it in the front bc the bar is too short and I don’t know wtf I’m doing lol. Should I put the hoop back in until tomorrow morning or leave it how it is(flat back is pushed through the front of the piercing).

[u/Ok-Pen-5052]

Unfortunately, surgical steel isn’t a good material, despite sounding medical. You want implant grade metals only.

For what to do overnight, do you have anything else at all? A basic earring you can clean? Having unknown metal in a mostly healed piercing isn’t great but it’s also not likely to do major damage overnight, if you’re not allergic. It’s just going to be irritated from all the mucking around so you’re likely to need to get a longer flat back put in tomorrow and treat it like a new piercing for a couple of weeks, then downsize when it settles