Dermatologist referral for non-healed ear lobe piercings?

[AlwaysaLittleBitTired]

I am hoping that somebody has experienced something similar, or perhaps that there is a dermatologist lurking who can confirm whether we should be seeking a referral?

DD had her ear lobes pierced over a year ago, when she was 11. They haven't healed, and although are not sore they produce white discharge all of the time, and bleed a little if we mess too much with the wound by removal and insertion of the jewellery. We try to avoid doing anything with them now, after having tried the bathing routine to no avail. Bathing or not seems to make no difference at all.

Swabs were recently taken at the GP surgery, and this confirmed there is no infection present.

Would a dermatologist be able to help figure out what is going on, or is it now time to admit defeat and remove the jewellery?

Just for the full picture, the piercings were done by needle, at a local piercing and tattoo salon, stainless steel studs were put in which I later replaced with 9ct gold studs. I have recently replaced these with titanium studs to see if this helps (as nickel free), but it is still early days there so not sure if there will be any improvement.

DD took her earrings out for PE on Friday (usually she tapes them), and with the earrings being out for 12 hours we struggled to get them back in. A warm flannel sorted it.

Common sense dictates we just remove the earrings now and let the holes heal, but after all of this time we don't really want to give up. Would it be difficult for DD to have them repierced later in life if she chooses to?

[MariaNovella]

It can take up to a year for pierced ears to heal and during that time earrings shouldn’t be removed at all. Gold or titanium are the way to go.

[QueenOfPain]

Just stop doing anything with them, stop changing them, stop bathing them, twisting them etc. They will heal eventually, and they’ll get clean enough in the shower when she washes her hair, etc. Every time you push the earrings back through when they’ve had 12 hours of closing up, you are restarting a healing process.

Please don’t burden the NHS by asking for a dermatology referral. And if you pay private you’ll be paying a fortune for what a piercer will tell you for free.

[GetOffTheRoof]

Get rid of the studs and try hoops. The stud may be too short for the thickness of her lobes. Happens for me too. Go back to the piercing studio for advice.