Lip piercing hardness??

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Friday May 16th, 2008 @ 1:37 AM

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i have a new side labret piercing.. its around 2 weeks old.. i had it pierced with a post but changed it to a ring once the swelling went down. the ring was supposed to be the same gauge but was a tiny bit smaller. the outside of the piercing looks perfect.. but the inside.. it feels VERY hard. like a big hard ball is inside my lip. i have no idea what this is from or how to get it to go back to normal. but its scareing me a bit. i’ve never had anything like this happen to any of my piercings before.. (including another labret and monroe) do you know what could be causing this? should i go to the doctor? thanks.

The hardness you are experiencing is most likely a combination of some swelling/irritation and perhaps a some scar tissue formation. Most likely this is a result of switching your jewelry to a ring a little too soon and/or having a piece of jewelry in there that is a little too thin for how much it moves around.

Excess movement (from a ring) and/or jewelry that is too thin can irritate a piercing, which is a healing wound. Your body reacts to irritation by in a healing wound by swelling, and also sometimes by generating some scar tissue to “protect” itself from the source of irritation. In the case of a lip piercing, this most likely shows up on the inside, because of the softness of that tissue. It’s also possible that the irritation is being caused by a ring that is too small of a diameter for the thickness of your lip…espeically if there is still any swelling.

At the very least, you need to be as nice and gentle with your piercing as possible. It may also be necessary/best to change the jewelry. Without seeing your piercing in-person, I can’t really comment on that. Although, I can tell you that labret studs are almost always better/easier for healing than rings are.

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