Is it Possible to Develop an Allergy to Jewelry? | Tini Lux

Is it Possible to Develop an Allergy to Jewelry?

By Jacqueline Burke

If you wore earrings for years without any issues and then seemingly overnight started getting painful reactions to them, you may have wondered what changed? Was it the earrings you were wearing? Was it because you hadn’t worn earrings in a while?

The truth is, the cause of your pain is actually a contact allergy that you developed over years of wearing earrings with reactive metals.

Jewelry allergies are contact allergies, meaning that they develop from regular contact with an irritating substance and they only occur when your skin is in contact with that substance. When in contact with a reactive material, your body’s immune system will develop a response to the irritant over time, and that response can include swelling, blistering, redness, bleeding, or other unpleasant symptoms. Once your body has developed this response to the substance, it only takes a few moments of contact for the response to occur.  This is why even after years of wearing earrings painlessly, you can suddenly get to the point where just trying earrings on can cause a reaction.

The question is – what exactly is it about earrings that causes the allergy and is it possible to avoid these painful reactions? Our research page goes into more detail on specific metals and what it is that causes reactions.  Many metals used to create earrings are not compatible with the human body because they react when in contact with biological substances.  Although you may think that a particular metal is safe, like gold, the truth is that anything less than 24k gold is alloyed, or mixed with other metals, and often those metals or the electrochemical reaction between the metals can be very irritating.

Many people turn to “hypoallergenic earrings” in hopes that they will be safe. Unfortunately, that term is not a guarantee of safety.  Many companies market their products as “hypoallergenic” which means they are “less likely to cause an allergic reaction.” But this term is like when a bag of potato chips says it has “33% less fat.” It really doesn’t mean anything. What are these earrings comparing themselves to when they say they are “less likely”? And if you have an allergy, like an allergy to nuts or gluten, don’t you want to be certain that the offending allergen is not present in the products you purchase?

That is why Tini Lux earrings are made with biocompatible metals. Biocompatible means that the substance is capable of coexisting with living tissue without being toxic, injurious, or physiologically reactive and not causing immunological rejection. We specifically chose medical implant grade titanium and pure niobium to make our earrings with because these metals are known to be biocompatible, inert and non-reactive with the human body. Titanium is very commonly used in medical implants because of its biocompatibility. Niobium is one of the most inert metals on earth.

With Tini Lux earrings, you will not have to worry about developing contact allergies or painful reactions. Because we use non-reactive metals, your immune system does not need to defend itself against these substances. You can feel safe choosing our earrings for yourself, your friends or your daughters because they are specifically designed with safety and wellness in mind.

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