I've never worn one, but I knew someone who did, and she said that everyone could tell she was wearing a retainer. I'm not sure if you should change it yet, but if you need to, talk to your piercer and maybe they can change it for you.

TBH, switching out jewelry this soon WILL do more harm than good for your piercing. If you feel you absolutely must do it, then you could try talking to your piercer about switching to clear glass jewelry (great for healing piercings) and having them do it in the shop so your chances of pissing off the piercing are a little slimmer.

Really, though, I'm thinking that your best bet would be just to leave it be - if your company's dress code doesn't prohibit it, then you should be fine, especially if your jewelry is just a cute, classy little stud and not anything too obnoxious. And like Fiona said, retainers are still pretty obvious, so you might as well just wear your regular jewelry! At least that way it won't seem like you're trying to hide anything, which might raise eyebrows where otherwise none would have been raised, y'know?

I agree so far with all the oints mentioned especially about the healing and how the clear retainers tend to stand out, or worse look like you have a warty lump!

One trick though is when you are healed get a tiny headed piece of jewelry with a plain silver top or paint a small one with flesh colored nail polish. This tends to be more descret then most of the jewelry out there.

I commonly wore a retainer in my nose piercing when starting a new job, and no one noticed it. And yes, I took my jewelry out after a month in order to put the retainer in... Not something I recommend, but I had to do it in order to get work. I luckily had no problems other than it was irritated for a few days afterwards, and probably took longer to heal because of it. The major factor, from what I understand, is the bacteria that collects in/on the plastic retainers, so they are more likely to get infected.

Being one of those people who could not have facial piercings at work, and after reading so many posts stating the same here, it makes me wonder why there isn't a business that might cater to this. I mean, why not make facial jewelry to look like something more natural like a big mole with some hairs sticking out of it ; ) People will avoid looking at it altogether and would never think of mentioning it. We would all be able to heal in peace.