Does anyone have a ridge/lip/flare (think of the flare of an eyelet) on one side of their septum that is tender?  I've been pierced for close to 2 years now.  Started at 10g.  Currently at 4g (stretched 6 weeks ago).  Initial piercing and all stetches have been textbook (at least 4 months between stretches and have done sea salt soaks after stretches).  Haven't had any problems until about two weeks ago.  Only the side with that ridge of skin is painfull.  Not sure what's going on here.  Need advice.  Except for the last two weeks, I've worn a CBB that I flip up every day for work and then flip back down at night.  A few days ago I put a plug in and the pain has been less, but is still there.  I guess my biggest concern is the flap of skin.  Is it normal?  Will it go away?  Will it toughen up over time?  Is the ridge of skin caused by the stretches?  All stretches have gone from left to right, so did the tapers push out/blow out the skin in that direction?  Not sure if the ridge was there since day 1 (never looked up there till now to see what was causing the pain).  Is the piercing simply migrating since the last stretch to a more comfortable place?  I don't want to lose my favorite piercing, so what should I do?  Please help!!  THANKS.

Having a "flap of skin" on any piercing sounds unhealthy. Flap of skin translates to blowout for me.

I don't have a stretched septum though, so I can't say. But it sounds like a blowout, in which case you need to downsize and so forth.

 yes that flap of skin is bad, it's scar tissue.

DOWNSIZE now atleast 2 sizes...or take the jewelery out for a few days and let it shrink as much as it can, and then when you find the size it stops shrinking at, your in for intensive treatment.

Oil and massage your septum with emu oil, or jojoba (emu works better for this) TWICE a day. You'll notice it starting to disappear in a week. Once all the scar tissue is all gone, then you can slowly stretch back up.

happened to me, and I let my septum self stretch from 14-6g but still got that "flap"of scar tissue, (at the beggining of this month) I left it naked for 4 days it shrank down to a loose 10g, and then oiled and massaged the hell out of it twice a day for about 2 weeks and it was gone, I'm now back up to 8g, and patiently waiting for it to loosen up back to 6, continuing with oiling and massages once a day

I had that problem up until 2 gauge or so, but a downsize back to six and slow stretch back up fixed it for me. 

Thanks for the advice.

A few more questions:

1)when I downsize, can I still use a CBB?  I don't have a retainer or septum plug, and don't want to buy one unless necessary (I assume I have to keep it flipped up and not pull down until fully healed again).

2)approximately how long after the ridge goes away should I wait until I try to stretch again?

Go for it. As long as your body is comfortable healing with metals, why not? I wear a retainer to hide mine, because it's a lot more comfortable than a CBB stuck in my nose all the time. Personal preference.

I'm not really sure about the second one. A month or two? Thoroughly heal before you start stretching again. I also suggest taking a longer time between sizes than you did initially.