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If you need to make your own sea salt solution, most table salt is perfectly safe. However, it is always recommended to purchase premade wound wash. At any step in mixing your own solution, you may use ingredients that aren’t sterile. Since you’re attempting to heal an open would – you should use the cleanest solution available, which is premade sterile wound wash. However, if you’re in a pinch, table salt and water works fine.
Can You Make Saline Solution With Table Salt for Piercings?
If you’re making your own saline solution, table salt is perfectly safe. You should use either table salt or fine sea salt. You’ll want to avoid any larger, course sand because it won’t dissolve as well and could become lodged in your piercing. This can cause irritation or infection if it remains lodged. Use 1/4 cup salt for every 1 cup distilled water. You’ll need to heat the water so the salt dissolves fully and then wait until the water has cooled to body temperature before you begin your soak.
What Can You Use to Clean Your Piercing if You Don’t Have Sea Salt?
As discussed in this article, if you want a saline solution but you don’t have sea salt, table salt will work fine. However, it should be mentioned that you don’t need to clean your piercing at all. If you get wounded outside, you need to wash your wound because whatever hurt you was dirty and you need to wash out all the dirt. When you got your piercing, the tool was sterilized, so there is nothing dirty to wash out. Your body does not make germs through wounds. You can not get an infection in a perfectly sterile environment. Never use soap to clean your piercing. Never put rubbing alcohol on your piercing. You can simply leave it the hell alone.
Why Does Sea Salt Work on Piercings?
Saline solutions are typically used to soothe irritated piercings or speed up the healing process. This works because salt is drying, so it reduces swelling (which is an excess of liquid lymph). Swelling itself is painful because you have too much liquid in one area, and it pushes against your skin. The less amount of time a wound spends irritated, the quicker it heals.
Can You Clean Your Piercing With Just Water?
Yes! Lots of people use just water to clean their piercings. This is part of the LITHA method. You can simply let your piercing sit under running water (not too high pressure!) for a few seconds to a few minutes. Most people just do this at the end of their morning shower. Don’t touch your piercing or try to pick off your crusties – just let the water wash over your piercing. Any crust that doesn’t come off naturally during this process isn’t ready to come off.
Does Sea Salt Dry Piercings?
Sea salt does dry piercings – this is why we use it. Salt is drying but its a very mild drying compared to say, rubbing alcohol (which you should never use). The drying is actually what allows the swelling to go down. However you do want to make sure you don’t soak too much. If your piercing becomes dry, it will actually become more irritated. You should soak your piercing at a maximum of 15 minutes twice per day. If you notice your piercing is drying out and becoming irritated, slow down on the soaking.
Conclusion
Table salt is perfectly safe to use in a sea salt solution. You should avoid salts that are course as they can be difficult to dissolve and will cause an issue with your piercing if not dissolved fully. It is considered safest to use a premade wound wash, such as Neilmed. However, you don’t need to use any kind of wash and can simply use the LITHA healing method and allow your piercing to rinse under just water instead.
