weeeee hi min! i came across ur blog n ab to dive into ur works (am pumped) but first saw that u just got ur tongue pierced and im SO CURIOUS— how was the pain level/healing process been?? (only if u dont mind me asking!) im highkey a wimp and just got a diff piercing done myself but ngl was eyeing that for a hot sec, only the place i went to wasnt doing below mask piercings. but i’m considering!!
hihi!! i’m so happy you found my blog 🥺 i’m gonna answer your questions and also add some other stuff that might be helpful!
ok so I have a pretty high pain tolerance?? built: different but when i got it done, the feeling was similar to what a lot of other people have said online about the pain. i expected it to hurt a lot more than it did, it just kind of felt like when you bite your tongue by mistake but for a longer period of time? the pain doesn’t get progressively worse or anything while they’re getting the jewelry ready to go in the new piercing it just? kinda remains the same. Once the jewelry is in, it doesn’t hurt as badly. like immediately after i had it done I could talk pretty normally and stick my tongue out without much pain
how long does it take to heal?
generally, tongue piercings take 4-6 weeks to heal which is super fast! mucous membranes like the tongue bounce back really quickly! when you first get your tongue pierced, the bar is really long (5/8 of an inch or 7/8 of an inch long, depending on your tongue) so that there’s lots of room for it to swell. after the 4-6 weeks you can go back to your piercer and they’ll put in a shorter bar for you, sometimes even for free!
these are some things that are essential for the recovery process (please follow your piercer’s instructions!! i’m not a licensed piercer, this is all my personal experience):
a new, soft bristled tooth brush (i bought a pack of kids’ toothbrushes from cvs)
a good, alcohol free mouthwash. most piercers recommend biotene, and I like it a lot because it’s made to help with dry mouth, and the first few days i was just chilling with my mouth open because the swelling made closing my mouth all the way a little uncomfy. Brush your teeth and rinse with mouthwash after consuming anything other than water (sometimes i just rinse with mouthwash or saline solution though)
distilled water and non-iodized, natural sea salt (warm up the water, adding 1/4tsp salt to every cup of water) to make a saline solution. swishing a little warm saline solution really helps with the healing process and makes it feel much better during the early days of healing
pain reliever! i got motrin because it’s also an anti-inflammatory.
ice! i crushed a little ice at a time in the blender and just?? ate little spoonfuls of it for the first 5 or so days
also i’d avoid spicy food/ any food that’s intensely flavored (like salt and vinegar chips or sour candy) for about a week at least bc that shit hurted me ;~; i had salt and vinegar chips on day 8 and my tongue was like pls stoP but like,,, i paid money for the chips so i ate them and suffered
(i’m currently on day 11, so i’ll only be able to tell you about what’s happened so far dshjfsgjkghsg)
day 1: some slight discomfort when talking, not a whole lot of noticeable swelling. for some reason as soon as i got home my stupid ass tried to eat a banana and it kinda hurt unless i took really little bites. eating feels really weird and hurts a bit at first.
day 2: i woke up and the swelling was worse than on day one. The pain was a bit worse too? but that might have just been me not noticing the pain as much on day 1 because the adrenaline of actually going out and getting it done haha. talking makes the pain worse, and sticking my tongue out was pretty uncomfortable too. i think i ate mac and cheese? the pain and swelling weren’t super bad so i was confident i’d be good eating it
day 3: ok so day 3 is are when the swelling usually hits its peak: it usually doesn’t get any more swollen than it is on day 3. that being said shit was VERY swollen, all my meals were smoothies of some sort. I ate lots of ice but had to use a tiny spoon because opening my mouth super big hURT.
day 4: my tongue was still pretty swollen, slightly less than day 3, but not like noticeably better. more smoothies. more ice
day 5: i noticed that the swelling was getting better on day 5 but it still wasn’t super close to normal. might have had pasta? i think?
day 6: i don’t know about day 5 but im positive i had pasta by day 6. Swelling was still noticeable but it was going down. not very painful! just felt a twinge if i tried to stick my tongue out or moved my tongue around a lot.
day 7: swelling was still going down! much closer to normal than day 3 though. very close to normal i think. i found out i can eat most things (like,,, texture wise. spicy food is still a no go) without much trouble by this point any pain was more like,,, soreness? overall not bad. the pain was so minimal i’d just?? forget to take it every 4-6 hours and only took it when i noticed it was kinda painful
day 8: by day 8 i felt pretty much back to normal and didn’t need to take pain relievers. i didn’t really notice my tongue feeling or looking very swollen either so i got overconfident and had some potato chips. texture wise? i was pretty ok eating them, i just had to be careful. but my stupid ass thought salt and vinegar would be a good flavor to try having. it was not a good idea, and it stung but like,,, i bought them so i ate them anyway
day 9 - now: totally normal!! but it’s important to keep rinsing and brushing extra because even though it feels fine it’s still healing
let me know if there’s anything else you wanna know! i hope this helps!! and thank you for following me @scrappydaisies !!
