At A Glance
Author	Michelle D
Contact	Michelle [email protected]
IAM	Flutterfly
When	Three months ago

Back in September my dentist said the following to me: "Michelle, I think you should have your wisdom teeth out". My reply was a simple "Okay". When I got home I called the oral surgeon to book my panoramic x-ray. While on the phone it hit me – x-rays and piercings don't really get along. In addition to 2 tattoos and various other piercings, I have 13 piercings from the neck up. Nothing spectacular by a lot of people's standards - I've got 3 sets of lobe piercings, my anti-tragus, logarth (high helix), conch, tragus, snug, rook and a nostril piercing. Deep down I knew what this would mean – that I would probably have to remove my piercings for the x-ray and possibly while I had my wisdom teeth removed. "Shit", I thought. I asked the receptionist if I would have to remove all of my piercings, to which she asked "Do you have a lot?" When I told her that I had 13 in that general area she sounded shocked. I explained that it would be incredibly difficult for me to remove the piercings because I would need "pliers" (I said pliers as opposed to ring openers and closers so that she'd understand). She put me on hold and when she came back she gave me the news I was dreading – yes, I'd have to remove all of my piercings because the metal could cause glares on the x-ray, making it difficult to pin point my nerves in the area. When I got off the phone I was not impressed, to say the least.

I've invested a lot of time and money into my piercings. Cartilage piercings can be a bitch. They take a long time to heal and even when healed, can act up for a day or more, at any time. Due to these facts, I decided that I was not going to retire my piercings, despite contemplating it for about 2.5 seconds. I immediately began a journey – of tracking down enough retainers of the appropriate gauges, in order to save my piercings. I wasn't going to risk leaving them out and then struggling to get the jewelry back in later, because I thought that I'd be unsuccessful. In retrospect, I should have just bought fishing line/monofilament, but I didn't think of this until days of incredible difficulty in my retainer hunt.

To start, I called every reputable piercing studio in downtown Toronto and nobody had enough retainers for me. One studio said they did have a 12g for my conch, but when I got down there I discovered it wasn't a 12g like they said – it was a 10g. After calling the reputable studios in the area I called the sketchy ones – the ones I'd never ever get pierced at. No luck. I moved on to the random body jewelry stores on Yonge Street and then accessory stores such as Claire's and Ardene. Still, I had no bloody luck. I later remembered another possibility that I had forgotten. I called the phone number and was told that this particular store (which also falls into the sketchy piercing "studio" category) had retainers. When I got to the store the man presented me with his "most popular retainers". I couldn't believe that he was charging $4 for these pieces of, well, um... shit, to say the least. He then showed me proper retainers like I had been looking for. He only had 2, 16g and said they were $12 each. I almost fell over in disgust. These were the same retainers that Ardene would have sold in a package of 3 for about $5. I was desperate, though, and purchased them. I then had 2 retainers, and needed 4 more, as I could leave my lobe piercings out without a problem and would take my nostril screw out immediately before the x-ray and would insert it as soon as I was finished.

I just so happened to be walking down Queen Street West and saw the body jewelry vendors that my roommate buys her body jewelry from. Normally I wouldn't have given them a second thought, because I purchase all of my body jewelry from piercing studios. I can't wear cheap jewelry because I would have a reaction. I need quality 316 LVM SSS jewelry. However, I decided that retainers were retainers and even if they weren't, I'd risk the irritation. I headed over to one vendor and I stared at the selection for about 15 minutes when I was approached by a lady who asked if I needed any help. I explained my situation and she was shocked – that I had to have this minor surgical procedure, that I had to remove my piercings and had been charged $12 each for the other retainers I had found. She said to wait 5 minutes and she'd "hook me up". This lady was incredibly nice and she found me enough retainers (some were regular retainers and others were barbells with nylon posts and SSS beads that could be easily removed) and charged me half of the price. I ended up getting double the retainers for half of the price that I had spent earlier. I was overjoyed.

My next step was removing the jewelry. I absolutely hate jewelry changes. I have no problem getting pierced, but when I have to change my jewelry I feel sick. Luckily I was able to have a local piercer, Six, remove all of my jewelry for me for $5 each. A few days before my consultation I headed to Exotix to have Six change my jewelry, little did I know that it would be painful. Yes, it was a painful, bloody mess. I had been sick the week before and my piercings were a little tender and were acting up slightly. Removing the jewelry and inserting the retainers caused me a great deal of pain and I bled like crazy. I've tried to block that day out. Despite the negative aspects of the jewelry changing, I now had retainers in all of my piercings and was set for my panoramic x-ray. It was weird to see my ears without all of the shiny metal.

The day of my x-ray I headed to the oral surgeon's office with far too much nylon in my ears. The x-ray literally took 2 minutes. I met with the surgeon and discussed my surgery. I wasn't concerned with the risks, the pain, etc. Instead, all I was concerned about was whether or not I'd have to have my piercings out for that day too. I was told that following that appointment I could head to the piercing studio and have all of my jewelry back in – that I would not have to keep retainers in for the actual procedure.

I left the office happy, but didn't head straight to Exotix. My ears were still slightly tender and I wasn't ready to go through the jewelry changing ordeal again. Instead, I waited 2 weeks for my piercings to calm down and then went to see Six again. I left with the jewelry filled ears that I was accustomed to.

As the days progressed my wisdom teeth removal date came closer and closer. As I sit here now I've had my wisdom teeth removed for over a month. The procedure was simple as was the post-op. I didn't even take the Percocets that I was prescribed for pain relief. Therefore pain was not the worst part of this experience, nor was the swelling, the bruising, not being able to eat for days, or the feeling of all of the stitches in my mouth. Looking back, I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed and what do I consider to be the worst part? The worst part was that I had to remove my piercings for the panoramic x-ray. Finding the retainers was difficult and frustrating. Switching the jewelry before and after the x-ray was painful. Plus, the whole ordeal was expensive. Removing the piercings for a 2 minute x-ray cost me over $100, since I had to buy retainers and pay $5 for each piercing I had changed.

Of course, however, there is something positive to remember – I didn't have to retire any of my piercings that mean so much to me. If there were to be a moral of my story, it would be that sometimes people's body modifications require them to make sacrifices, be it giving up friendships/relationships with those who don't support their body modifications. Or, maybe it means not getting a particular job because of policies regarding visible piercings or tattoos. In my case, it was a simple as giving up some of my time and money to be able to save my piercings. Above all, sometimes sacrifices are worth it to those who have cherished body modifications.