What is a conch piercing? That sounds painful all by itself.
Here is a picture of my
ear, the conch is the one being pointed to.. yes it hurts getting it done.
If your ear is infected to the point of n abcess and you have a piercing, WHY would you not want it out so it could heal?
The Doctor probably has a better idea about health matters than you do as well as the legal ramifications of his actions. I have an idea that he knows what he can discuss with your parents and what crosses the line of going too far.
Canadian law is different than US law, so he might be able to reveal things like that, expecially since your parents know your ear is infected.
I am allergic to metal, and before you start saying then I shouldn't have piercings in the first place, I'll tell it is my own decision, and all the absess' I've had to date heal, I have bactroban for the area, sea salt soaks for when it gets bad, and Novoclobetasol incase I get a bit of a rash behind my ear.
With all due respect, you may be turning 20 next January, but you sound like you are 12... and as long as you live under your parents roof, you should respect their authority.
Edit: By the way, you think the doc might actually know what he's talking about? Or in the least, have a better understanding of medicine than you?
I think after having 17 (this being my 18th piercing) I am more a professional of my own body.. and my parents have nothing to do with this other than forcing me to get it removed. So take your moot opinion somewhere else.
Get the ear healed first. Then, see about reporting him.
He may have called your parents because he thinks you don't grasp the severity of the infection. Any infection that is on the head, can go to the brain. A girl here had an infected zit right under her nose. Well, she let it go and kept putting makeup on it and such. The stuff went to her brain.
As any person with any type of advanced knowledge of piercings knows that taking out the piercing could be worse than leaving it in. I also don't believe a zit did that to your former story.
Doctors are notorious for not knowing how to deal with piercings, many times diagnosing an irritation as an infection and telling the patient to remove the piercing immediately. This can actuallly be worse for the area that's irritated/infected because the surface skin heals first, thereby encapsulating bacteria inside. A lot of times it's much better to treat the irritation or infection with the pierrcing in.
However, I don't know if this applies to TK's case. I would encourage you to first go see the person who gave you the piercing or any other reputable piercer, and then get a second opinion from another doctor. I would do this today. If you're unable to, I'd take the piercing out, let the abscess heal, and maybe try it again once it's completely healed. As far as I know, having had numerous piercings, an abscess is not normal and is not something to be taken lightly. Any infection or irritation, especially in cartilage, is potentially very dangerous.
As far as the doctor goes, check the laws in Canada, and proceed as stanmarsh14 has outlined. But, to echo everyone else here, take care of the health matters first.
The piercing will be removed via my parents are forcing it no matter what the piercer says... I am fully aware of the let it heal while in rule because I've had this happen once or twice before. I am hoping that some crazy but controllable infection does insue from it being removed so I can further teach the doctor he knows nothing about infection control when it comes to "forign bodies in the body"...
I completely agree, I have/had 22 piercings in total and have had my fair share of infections, an abscess however isn't normal and needs sorting asap. Taking the piercing out is never a good idea for the simple fact that if it isn't ready, it will irritate the area further, and heal around the infection making it 10x worse, just don't try telling the Doc that because he isn't going to listen.
The area should be treated with topical solutions, anti-imflammatories and anti-biotics with the piercing in according to my Doc and Piercer.
I don't know about your laws over there, so I'll not comment
That is exactly what I told him, then he went all bizzaro doctor talk on me.. and I was like ok you still are not listening to what I asked. My concern was not the piercing.. it was the absess.
Did he break the law? You say he called your parents to "inform them he was concerned"; that's not enough to violate doctor-patient confidentiality.
Sure is when he told them I seemed to stuborn to listen, and what happened, and that I will loose my ear if it doesn't come out.. he told them everything.. and now they are dead stuck on thinking I'm going to loose my ear, and will not listen to the logic I have placed in front of them as per what Snoozan, and Kotch have outlined.
This article seems to say that what the doctor did was, in fact, violating the law. I could be wrong, however.
Confidentiality
If the doctor only said, "I'm concerned about your daughter, please speak with her," that is somewhat of a grey area, I guess (though I'd still be writing letters etc.). But if he at all mentioned her visit, the nature of the visit, the infection, etc. it seems as though he was clearly breaking the law.
He told them everything so yes, he broke the law.
You know my son's a body piercer TK and he confirms what Snoozan and Kotch both say, infections around piercings are common and it's best to leave the piercing in in most cases as if you take it out the surface heals but the infection carries on festering inside and this can lead to an abscess, however in your case you already have an abscess and he said that this is one of the fairly rare cases where it is better to take the piercing out and treat it as any abscess-antibiotics and allow it to drain.
I'd also make a formal complaint against the doctor, you're an adult and any visit to him should remain confidential.
I think you're going to have to lose the piercing this time, but you know you can have it done at some time in the future when it's well healed.
I had went there to have it drained.. because it was doing so on it's own, and I just wanted to speed the process, he didn't even mention drianing it, told my parents he could have removed the piercing there, which he didn't tell me, and I left pissed off and without the treatment I wanted.. which was a drained of the fluid in the absess to shrink the absess so I could more easily deal with an infection if one arrose.
I sorry.
