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Ear Tunnel - Facts and Risks
contents
- The most important facts
- Stretch the ear hole
- What to do if it breaks?
- Pegs, thorns and rings - History of the ear tunnel
- Stretching yourself
- Under the scalpel
- Dermal punch
- Avoid infections and stink
- risks
- How do I remove an ear tunnel??
- Shrink the hole
- ear Surgery
- Pay the health insurance?
- What do the doctors say?
The most important facts
- Ear tunnels are extended holes in the earlobe, through which jewelry is pushed through. In many cultures since the Stone Age spread, offer such jewelry parts even today a variant of beautification, in addition to elven ears, burn scars, tattoos, piercings and cut scars.
- Such a meat tunnel is created either by stretching the hole, which is done over a long period of time, step by step, with the help of larger and larger pins, or it is punched once in the tissue by a piercer.
- The ear hole is associated with some risks. The most common are infections and tears. Through the hole, the outer skin of the earlobe becomes thinner and thinner, and the larger the diameter of the jewelry, the faster the skin tears.
- An ear hole is not easy to remove. Were the stretch smoothly before before, then shrink medium-sized branch channels often back to the normal ear hole size. If this does not work, a doctor must sew the opening.
- It is an important decision if you want to have an ear tunnel in the long run. Who decides to should strictly pay attention to hygiene and consider the consequences.
An ear tunnel piercing is a fad with risks and side effects. (Image: anetlanda / fotolia.com) Stretch the ear hole
A flesh tunnel, as it is called in English, is a lengthy story. At the beginning there is a normal ear hole for an earring. The earlobe consists of soft parts such as skin, fat and connective tissue and can be stretched. This stretching takes place in small steps. In a normal ear hole is an expansion rod, which consists mostly of titanium, plugged and pushed through the hole. The procedure is not without pain. Each month you can increase the diameter of the hole by about one centimeter, until it is about six centimeters.
With even greater elongation, the outer skin of the ear thins strongly. If the blood circulation is difficult, the tissue can even die off. Nonetheless, some peoples in northeastern Africa traditionally carry up to 15 centimeters of meat tunnels on their ears. In addition, the earlobe can tear. In women, the connective tissue of the earlobes can usually stretch better.
What to do if it breaks?
If you do not place the hole in the center of the earlobe, there is a risk of the earlobe tearing. In a normal ear hole that would be a small problem and the wound would, if it does not ignite, heal by itself. However, a meat tunnel is too big to grow without medical help. The growth is prevented by the strong scar tissue and the ends can not grow together without connection.
Extreme ear jewelery is an element of many cultures, as here with a Maasai woman. (Image: erichon / fotolia.com) Pegs, thorns and rings - History of the ear tunnel
After the fashion waves of earrings, piercings, tattoos, brandings and cuttings, only eardrums in Germany seem to be exceptional. The fact that meat tunnels have been popular since the Stone Age has often been forgotten.
Ötzi, the best-preserved body from the Neolithic Age, found in Tyrol in 1991, had its earlobes stretched 5,000 years ago, as did the ancient Egyptians. In ethnic groups in Africa, discs and pegs are common in ear-holes, upper and lower lips, as well as in cultures from the Amazon, South and Central America, and India. The Dayak in Borneo hung extra heavy rings in their ears and stretched out the holes - the earlobes pulled down.
Stretching yourself
It is not recommended to stretch an ear hole without specialist care. But as many people will continue to do so, here are the most important rules to prevent evil consequences.
At the beginning there is a so-called lobe piercing in the earlobe. It is only stretched when it is completely healed, and again at intervals of several weeks. This patience is imperative, otherwise the tissue does not relax, but it tears. Infections and ugly scars could be the result. In Piercingstudios there are expansion pins in suitable size of one to eight millimeters. They are made of stainless steel or acrylic and five to ten inches long. You brush the pen with lubricant and insert it into the branch channel. The jewelery they now put on the larger diameter at the hollow point on the pin and push it into the channel. If you use such a pen, you must pay strict attention to hygiene.
"Heimpiercer" use more often also all sorts of sticks, matches, thorns and pins to widen the ear holes. Please stop that! You increase the risk that the wound is infected. Simply pushing larger jewelry into the hole is risky. Here it regularly comes to cracks, bleeding or inflammation.
Under the scalpel
Short and painful: This applies to the method in which a puncture canal is widened or the skin is opened by cutting it with a scalpel. So you get a large diameter quickly. The ear cut prefers people who like to insert very large pieces of jewelry or want to move a larger piercing. Since this causes a larger open wound, the risk of infection is greater than during stretching "step by step".
The stretching of an ear tunnel takes place in several stages. (Image: bsd555 / fotolia.com) Dermal punch
This quick-return method saves waiting. The piercer suddenly punches a larger hole in the earlobe. The wound heals faster than normal-pierced piercings, but only medium-sized meat tunnels can be achieved.
Avoid infections and stink
You should clean the stitch canal and jewelry yourself regularly. On the one hand, they prevent infections, on the other hand, dilated ear-holes stink, if they are not cleaned. Tallow, sweat and skin remains are deposited in the meat tunnel. This together creates a foul-smelling mixture.
risks
The connective tissue in the earlobe can be stretched, but not infinite. The skin becomes thin and breaks down quickly. The thinner the skin, the more susceptible it is to pathogens. The most dangerous time is that of stretching itself, because here you rub again and again on a freshly healed wound.
How do I remove an ear tunnel??
To remove a healed stitch channel, surgery is essential. If the hole is very large, surgically even the skin must be transplanted. It usually comes from the neck pit and is lined with fat from the stomach.
Shrink the hole
But you can also try to make the holes smaller by using smaller and smaller plugs or rings, as opposed to stretching. Probably the ear holes shrink again. This does not always work and depends on how carefully they have enlarged the hole before. If you are overly rough then the tissue will scar and the scars will be bad or not. Large meat tunnels almost never grow completely by themselves. On the other hand, earholes less than eight millimeters have a high chance of shrinking to the size of normal earring channels.
ear Surgery
If the hole does not shrink back to the desired size, an operation that requires great surgical skills will help. First, check how much tissue is present, then remove the epithelial layer under the ring (ie up to two millimeters of epidermis). The lower side of the earlobe is formed into a "wedge" and the upper tissue is distributed around it. Then you sew the wound with gossamer threads outside and inside. It remains a fine scar. After surgery, patients must wear plaster for about 14 days.
Metal ear tunnel jewelry is available in different colors. (Image: deserttrends / fotolia.com) Pay the health insurance?
Such an operation requires local anesthesia and, if the patient wishes, a general anesthetic. It lasts up to 30 minutes and costs up to 1300 €, depending on how difficult the reconstruction of the earlobe is. The health insurance companies usually do not pay for such an operation, because since 2007, they do not have to pay if the customer has had an "unnecessary intervention" carried out. And an enlarged ear hole is, as beautiful as it was the affected people at that time, an unnecessary intervention.
So it is better, you think, if you want to stretch your branch channel at a young age, first of all, whether you use it after your school or your studies an employer in their profession and what difficulties could otherwise exist.
What do the doctors say?
The professional association of German dermatologists for plastic and aesthetic dermatosurgery points out that an over-stretched skin does not return to its old form. So anyone who intends to undergo such a procedure should think it over very carefully. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)