The photographs to the right show drop-, hoop-, and button-style earrings, with french-back, clip-, and post-type clasps, respectively. A clip can be replaced with a pierced-style post, and many styles with french-backs can be changed to posts, and vice versa.

An earring is more stable when the area that comes in contact with the ear is larger. Since every person’s ears are different in shape and thickness, the springs in earrings with clips must be fine-tuned at the time of purchase in order to find the prefect balance between comfort and security. Even with such adjustments, earrings can become painful to wear after a while, making readjustment necessary. In some cases, silicon may also be set into an omega clip to prevent clip-type earrings from falling off, but not all manufactures agree on the long-term reliability of silicon.