Stank stretched Labret

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Tuesday April 28th, 2009 @ 9:13 AM

Filed under: Lip/Cheek

Quick question: My labret is stretched to half inch and it smells pretty awful. I brush twice daily so that isn’t it. It’s like nothing i’ve ever smelled before and it is driving my wife and I crazy. Is there anything that I can do to try and get rid of it? It has gotten to the point that I’m considering removing the jewelry and letting it close. Please help as I love this piercing and would rather not have to resort to that.

There are a couple of things you could try:

If you aren’t currently removing the jewelry regularly and cleaning it and the hole, you should do that. The skin cells die and slough off the skin of healed piercing holes just like they do on the rest of your skin. When those cells die and get trapped in the piercing by your jewelry, you start to get da funk. The larger the hole, usually the worse the smell, since there is more surface area of skin to produce the dead skin cells. Typically removing the jewelry once per day to clean it and the hole will take care of the problem.

You could try switching jewelry. If you are currently wearing a non-porous material such as steel, titanium or glass, you could try switching to something a little more porous like wood, bone or horn. These materials will help absorbe the oils and some of the skin cells, which tend to reduce the funk.

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