r/piercing•
pdggin99

Healed septum having issues?

Troubleshooting/question existing piercing

I got my septum pierced when I was 16 (I’m now 23). For the past few months, it’s been a bit painful, like when it moves or gets touched. It’s also been smelling funky and producing yellow-brown crusts, sometimes cream colored liquid.

I wear a horseshoe and have not changed it for years. I’ve been taking it out to clean the jewelry and hole with rubbing alcohol (yeah I know it’s bad I’m going to get saline today). When I got the piercing cleaned it with saline multiple times daily for like half a year, then it was healed so I stopped cleaning it entirely (ew gross I’m sorry) so I’ve recently started cleaning it again now that I’ve acknowledged that this is a problem (I was in denial for a while). It’s been the same size (14g) for as long as I can remember. I do wear a CPAP with a nasal cushion mask, which might be irritating it. I will sometimes wake up with a very painful nose but other times I wake up completely fine, without the straps being adjusted differently or anything. It’s just random days it decides to hurt more.

Posted Jul 2, 2025, 3:22 PM UTC

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