Removing a daith piercing is straightforward once you know what type of jewelry you’re wearing and how its closure mechanism works. The daith sits in a thick fold of cartilage just above the ear canal, which makes it trickier to see and grip than most piercings. Before you start, make sure your piercing is fully healed, typically 6 to 12 months after it was placed.
Make Sure It’s Fully Healed First
Daith piercings take 6 to 9 months to heal on average, though some take up to 12 months. The outside may look fine while the interior channel is still forming new tissue. If you remove jewelry from an unhealed piercing, the hole can close within hours to days, and reinserting it yourself risks tearing the tissue or introducing bacteria.
A good rule: if your piercing is less than six months old, or if you still occasionally see crusting, tenderness, or clear fluid, treat it as unhealed. Have your piercer confirm it’s ready before you attempt removal at home. During the initial healing phase, only a professional piercer should be swapping or removing your jewelry.
Gather Your Supplies
You’ll need a well-lit area, a mirror (a magnifying mirror helps significantly), clean hands, and sterile saline solution or wound wash. Latex or nitrile gloves give you a much better grip on small, slippery metal, and they keep bacteria off the jewelry and piercing site. A small square of toilet paper or slightly damp tissue also works as a grip aid in a pinch.
If you’re working with a captive bead ring, ring opening pliers (sold at piercing supply shops) make the job dramatically easier. Hemostats, the scissor-handled clamps, can help hold a curved barbell steady while you unscrew an end. Clean any tools with rubbing alcohol before use.
Before touching the jewelry, spray the piercing with saline and let it soak for a minute. This softens any dried crust around the closure, which is the most common reason daith jewelry feels stuck.
Identify Your Jewelry Type
Four styles of jewelry are commonly worn in daith piercings, and each one opens differently. Take a close look in your mirror before pulling on anything.
- Captive bead ring (CBR): A circular hoop with a small ball held in place by tension between the two ends of the ring. The ball pops out when you pull the ring ends apart slightly.
- Clicker ring: A hoop with a hinged segment that clicks shut. One side has a tiny hinge; the opposite side snaps into a small notch.
- Seamless ring: A continuous hoop with a nearly invisible seam where the two ends overlap. It opens by twisting, not pulling apart.
- Curved barbell: A curved bar with a ball on each end. One or both balls unscrew (righty-tighty, lefty-loosey), or the jewelry may be threadless, meaning the ends pull straight off.
How to Remove a Captive Bead Ring
Hold one side of the ring steady between your thumb and index finger. With your other hand, grip the bead firmly. Pull gently outward on the ring while holding the bead. The bead should pop free as the ring ends separate just enough to release it. Once the bead is out, rotate the ring until one end clears the piercing hole, then slide it out.
If the ring is too tight to spread with your fingers alone, insert the grooved tips of ring opening pliers through the hoop. Gradually open the pliers until the ring catches on the grooves, then apply gentle, controlled pressure. You only need a few millimeters of gap. Too much force will permanently warp the ring.
How to Remove a Clicker Ring
Find the hinge side of the ring and the closure side opposite it. Hold the hinge side steady, then push the clickable segment gently away from the ring, outward from your ear. You should feel or hear a small click as it releases from the notch. Swing the hinged section open, then carefully rotate the ring out of the piercing channel. If the hinge feels stiff, warming the jewelry with a clean, warm cloth for 30 seconds can help loosen it.
How to Remove a Seamless Ring
Locate the seam, the thin line where the two ends of the ring meet. Grip the ring on either side of the seam with your thumb and index finger of each hand. Pull outward slightly, then twist in opposite directions, like wringing out a cloth, creating a corkscrew shape. This separates the overlapping ends without bending the ring out of round. Slide one end out of the piercing channel, then gently pull the ring free.
How to Remove a Curved Barbell
First, figure out whether your barbell is threaded or threadless. If it’s threaded, one or both balls unscrew. Hold the bar steady with one hand (hemostats help here) and twist the ball counterclockwise with the other. Note that on some barbells, only one end unscrews while the other is fixed. If it won’t budge, try the other end.
If your jewelry is threadless, the decorative top is held in place by a slight bend in the pin that creates friction. Instead of twisting, pull the top straight away from the post with firm, steady pressure. Once the end is off, slide the bar out through the piercing.
What to Do When Jewelry Won’t Budge
Crusting around the closure is the most common culprit. Soak the area with warm saline for two to three minutes, then gently work any softened crust away with a cotton swab before trying again. Gloves or a small piece of damp tissue give you significantly more friction than bare fingers on polished metal.
If the jewelry still won’t move after a few careful attempts, stop. Forcing it risks irritating the piercing, scratching the inside of the channel, or warping the jewelry so badly it can’t be reinserted. Visit a reputable piercing studio instead. Most piercers will remove jewelry for free or for a small fee, and they have the proper tools and lighting to handle it quickly.
You should also skip the DIY approach entirely if you notice signs of infection: redness and warmth spreading beyond the piercing site, swelling, yellow or foul-smelling discharge, or fever. Removing jewelry from an actively infected cartilage piercing can trap the infection inside, so see a healthcare provider first. Small bumps around the piercing aren’t necessarily infections. These fluid-filled bumps, called granulomas, often respond to warm saline compresses and don’t prevent safe removal once the piercing is otherwise healed.
After the Jewelry Is Out
Once the jewelry is removed, spray the area with saline and leave it alone. Expect some minor tenderness for a day or two, especially if you had to work at getting the jewelry out. Avoid sleeping on that side for a few nights if it feels sore.
If you want the piercing to stay open, insert new jewelry promptly. A fully healed daith piercing can remain open for months to years before closing, but how fast it shrinks depends on how long you’ve had it. A piercing that’s only been healed for a few months may start narrowing within days. One that’s several years old could stay open much longer. If you’re removing the jewelry permanently, the hole will gradually close on its own, though a small dimple or scar tissue may remain.
If you’re swapping to new jewelry and struggling with reinsertion, a piercer can taper the new piece in for you. This is especially worthwhile for daith piercings, where the angle and limited visibility make it easy to lose the channel.