Earring wearers have been warned to be wary after a woman who had used silicone backs ‘almost’ ended up in A&E.
The silicone covers that often accompany earring backs can be really useful – particularly if metal backs go missing, or to ensure the studs are extra secure.
But one TikToker, Amber Rose Guttilla, is urging users to be cautious with prolonged use of these silicone backs after her experience nearly landed her in hospital. In a viral “public service announcement” viewed by over 7.6 million people, the Los Angeles-based 30-year-old highlighted the dangers of using what’s typically provided as a “secondary earring back” to the standard metal ones.
“In case nobody told you, let me be the first to tell you, these are not meant to be worn long-term,” she cautioned. Amber shared her own ordeal in a video where she recounted how she recently attempted to switch her second lobe piercings to earrings with flat backs, only to struggle with the task, even enlisting her fiancé’s assistance.
When she was unable to reattach the flat back, she opted for a silicone back instead, leaving it in for “for a month or two”. However, when she tried to remove it, she found it impossible.
“I thought it was just a user error, like I wasn’t pulling at the right angle. I couldn’t get them off, and I couldn’t figure out why,” she explained. Amber visited a piercing studio, where the professional piercer immediately guessed the reason for her visit.
“Apparently, for whatever reason, silicone backs let in a lot of oil, grease from your hair, sweat, makeup […] and it almost creates a glue. An adhesive. So if you wear those silicone backs for too long it almost fuses to the back of your ear.”
The piercer warned that the previous person with the same issue had to go to hospital to have it removed, but luckily, Amber had only had it in for two months, so it hadn’t “totally fused”. The removal process was “a bit challenging” and “a little bit painful”, but ultimately successful.
“I’ve had my ears pierced for 30 years and never knew this,” she added. According to Dr Hadley King, a board-certified dermatologist in New York, this phenomenon occurs due to “of the chemical properties of the polymer, creating an adhesive effect”, which is strengthened by “body heat, pressure and time”.
Marisa Garshick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York, concurred, told Well+Good: “We see this a lot with earrings overall, where a buildup of wax, oils, or anything can sit in the space of the earring back and harden. This doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily congealing with the silicone, but buildup can get stuck in the plug of the earring back, making it harder to come out.”
