Can wooden jewelry REALLY be sterilized?

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Sunday February 17th, 2008 @ 5:53 PM

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I’ve always known that “organic” jewelry is a breeding ground for bacteria and such and it shouldn’t be passed around from person to person(never mind the ick factor), but what about sterilizing the jewelry after you’ve worn it a while? Say if I had stretched lobes and wooden tunnels and I got some sort of infection in my ear lobe would in be safe to wear that jewelry again?

I found this: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/9_14_96/bob2.htm

about kitchen cleaning and at the bottom it talks about sterilizing wooden cutting boards in the microwave. Is that an option with wooden tunnels/plugs?

Thanks.

I think the chance of you getting some sort of infection in your earlobe, which would live in your plugs and then somehow re-infect your earlobes is extremely unlikely. You could try microwaving your plugs, and it might help in terms of an baddies living on/in the jewelry, but it’s hard to predict what it would do to the integrity of your plugs…in other words…I wouldn’t do it if it were my jewelry.

Regular oiling and the occasional washing with mild soap and water (if you’re concerned about germs) should be sufficient to keep your plugs clean and looking good.

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