Earring Alert

     If your daughter or son has a pierced ear, Turn the ear over and look at the back of the earlobe. It is common for children and adolescents who wear earrings to keep wearing the same earring for days at a time. In addition, they often continue to play with the earring by squeezing on it. The result of these two habits is that the back of the earring gets imbedded more and more deeply into the back of the earlobe. When you look at the earring back, you may only see a portion of it with the rest being imbedded in the earlobe. With one patient, I could not see the earring back at all – it was entirely imbedded in the lobe and it had to be removed surgically. If you see this is happening, remove the earring, clean the lobe with alcohol and give the ear lobe at least a day's rest with no earring. If it looks infected, see your caregiver.

     The way to prevent this is simple. The “earring rule” should be that anyone with an earring takes it out at night and leaves it out through the night. They should clean the post and the back with alcohol and wear a different earring the next day. It is fine to alternate between two different earrings – just don’t wear the same earring two days in a row.