Because they'd rather write a prescription instead? I wonder the same thing myself. I know dentists do all the time, and its a magical cure for oral wounds.

If you did see that from physicians, I'd bet it'd come more from DOs than MDs.

sometimes simple remedies are better. I've used the salt soak trick on more than one occasion for minor wounds since becoming pierced and learning about it.

Piercings are very small puncture wounds and sea salt works very well. With a large puncture wound I doubt if it would work all that well. Having had this wonderful experience and normal treatment did not heal the wound I was sent to a wound clinic where I spent ten weeks getting the thing healed. Eight weeks was with a product called Oasis wound matrix, made from the small intestine of a pig and held in place with a pressure wrap called an Unna boot. Not fun during the dog days of August. One other matrix which they had run out of was made from the fore skin of babies. It is super expensive.

ugh. but you're right, that's a little different situation, than with minor wounds.

I am a believer in the old time remedies. When I was a kid my dad took me to the local GP with a planters wart on my palm. The old doc said that he could charge me to burn it out or I could go home and take a minced onion and marinate it for twenty four hours in vinegar and then put a dollop of that on it with a dressing over it and leave it on for twelve hours. About a week later the thing fell out and the site where it was at healed with no scar.

The video said to use 1/8th tsp of sea salt per 8 oz H2O. Shouldn't that be 1/4 tsp salt?

yes; my sources say 1/4 t to one cup is the proper ratio.

ETA: I just checked the APP aftercare sheet and it says 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon. So, probably between those two is fine; it's stronger or weaker than that which would be the problem.

Chances are its somewhere in between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp. If you calculate it out, you have to figure out how many grams of salt per 8 oz water would make a 0.9% saline solution. Then you have to convert the mass of the salt into a convenient volume (i.e. teaspoon) that is easy to measure.

If you're a stickler about it, you can just mix 2.25g of salt into 250 mL of water and have a perfect 0.9% saline solution. Do you need to? Not really.

Edit: Hmmm... according to my own calculations, a proper 0.9% saline solution would have just over 1/3 tsp of salt per 8oz water. If anyone wants to see my calculations just let me know.

So if I want to go and soak in the bath for an hour, what's the right amount then[evilgrin]? Just wondering because I know the local supermarket staff are wondering why I buy so much seasalt! This thread and others like it make me wonder if I'm overdoing it, but I'm a relative newcomer to the hobby, so having seen this thread, thought I could do worse than ask more "seasoned" people for advice. TIA and sorry for the pun.

I guess it would depend on the size of your bathtub, now, wouldn't it? We normally don't suggest people soak in the bathtub, because a) how would you measure correctly; and b) you have to clean your tub with bleach beforehand, and who wants to do that?

What's the prevailing thoughts, at least in this forum, on rinsing after salt soaks? If the body is happy with a .9% saline solution is it necessary to rinse?

When i got my nipples pierced my piercer suggested the saline solution. his main concerns with salt water mixture was that you had to prepare it first, you know warm water, right amount of salt, mix. instead of just pouring the saline in a shot glass and soak. but his main point was the harmful chemicals that water from say a faucet can contain. where i live the water company adds flourine into our tap water, i'm not saying flourine is bad for piercings or anything but you really can't account for whats in the faucet water. so my point is wouldn't it be safer, more convienent, and less time consuming to use saline instead of salt water mixture?

Use filtered or distilled water. I'm not a fan of pre-mixed solutions. Common sense would indicate that rinsing is a good idea. You don't want any salt residue left on your skin.

I usually soak, then shower and clean anyway.

Like Cloud said, if you don't rinse afterwards you end up with dried salt on your skin which can irritate your piercing (not to mention dry out your skin!).