When is ear piercing dangerous?

Well over 90% of women (and a lot of men) have their earlobes pierced. It's safe and easy. And hardly anyone has a problem with earlobe piercing. But in the last decade, women have begun to pierce their ears up high -- through the cartilage. High school girls, in particular, like this look.

I've had a few patients who got infections after having their cartilage pierced. When bacteria get into cartilage, they eat through it like a dog chomping down hamburger. The entire ear can be destroyed in just a few days.

This problem is devastating and fixing it requires some pretty complex surgery. Cartilage piercing is dangerous because it really doesn't take much at all to cause an infection.

So my advice, buck the trends and don't get the cartilage pierced. Pierce the earlobe -- once, twice, or whatever your mother lets you do. But stay away from the upper ear.

Ear piercing itself isn’t dangerous, but if the pierced site isn’t kept clean than infection may set in. Signs to look for include redness, swelling, soreness or pus at the site.

With mild infections, sometimes the earring can be left in and treated by cleaning the area well and applying a topical antibiotic. In more severe cases, the earring will need to be removed and oral antibiotics will be prescribed. In such cases, after the infection clears and the hole closes, the ear lobe can be repierced. In some of the worst cases I have seen, the infection is so bad that the earring back is swallowed up the swollen, infected earlobe. This can be challenging to remove and treat for both the doctor and the patient.