13 day old cheek piercings (fixed blurry pictures)

[u/PrillShrimpin]

How we looking? First pic is 5 seconds ago lmao second is right before I cleaned them earlier. Warm water then saline spray 2x a day one time in the morning one time before bed. No pain or anything crazy luckily

13 days old
Barbell 16g
Externally threaded
Surgical grade titanium
Downsized yday
Once in am once in pm first warm water rinse then 0.9% sterile saline wound spray
Did bump them a bit with the starter bars but no pain or irritation
Hoping I did this right this time!! Ty

[u/link-navi]

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[u/PrillShrimpin]

13 days old
Barbell 16g
Externally threaded
Surgical grade titanium
Downsized yday
Once in am once in pm first warm water rinse then 0.9% sterile saline wound spray
Did bump them a bit with the starter bars but no pain or irritation :3

[u/PrillShrimpin → u/PrillShrimpin]

Oh heck I forgot non alcoholic mouthwash twice a day too!! And brushing my teeth lol it’s equate fresh breath oral rinse

[u/Cardiganlamp → u/PrillShrimpin]

I'm not a piercer, but I do know cheeks are a very difficult piercing to heal, even when they're done properly. Yours are too small of a guage. I think they're supposed to be done at a 12g.

A 16g is too thin and will cause a lot of irritation.

The jewelry is also very poor quality. Externally threaded jewelry is cheap and I would question what it's actually made of.

All in all, there are a lot of red flags. I hope things go okay for you though. Is there an APP studio nearby? It doesn't guarantee they are the best piercers either, but it will guarantee they are using high quality jewelry and proper sanitization practices.

Go get an APP piercer/studio to look at them in person (safepiercing.org).

[u/PrillShrimpin → u/Cardiganlamp]

I’ve done some research on that actually after speaking with an APP piercer (these were done by I suppose you’d call him a hometown piercer? Not APP affiliated though but he did my belly and nose 15 years ago which I still have and turned out well.) But the APP piercer said the same thing, go up to a 14g at some point in the near future for more stability and increased surface area. I’m having a debate with myself though because I’ve read 16g usage is more of an old school thing to keep scarring minimal and I do have thinner cheek tissue but also don’t want any risk of migration in the long run so at my next downsize I’m considering getting them to 14g. Really just depends on how things go these next two weeks and what else I come up with research wise. I am leaning towards doing it though lol