More and more often, we find ourselves reminding our patients that they need to take out their oral piercings before surgeries or before an x-ray. This got us thinking…do these young girls and boys understand that these foreign appliances and jewelry is bad for their oral health, and that, maybe not now, but in the future there can be some serious consequences?
Dr. Largey wants all of his patients to be informedabout the problems that coincide with their decision to pierce their tongue, lips, uvula and cheeks. We encourage our patients to ask their general dentists to inform them about this growing topic as well.
According to the American Dental Association (ADA), oral piercings can cause a multitude of oral problems including:
- Excessive drooling
- Infection, pain, and swelling
- Chipped or cracked teeth
- Injuries to gums
- Damage to fillings
- Increased saliva flow
- Hypersensitivity to metals
- Scar tissue (known as second tongue)
- Nerve damage
All of these problems can happen during, soon after, or long after the piercing procedure is performed.
Oral piercings (especially tongues) carry potential risks of endocarditis (also known as inflammation of the heart valves or tissues). Bacteria is no stranger to your mouth, there are 600 known species of bacteria that inhabit your mouth, and for every inch of saliva filled space lies approximately 2.5 billion (with a B) unwanted organisms. These bacteria can enter the bloodstream through the piercing site in your mouth and travel to the heart, where it can colonize on heart abnormalities. This is a great risk for people with heart conditions and in worse cases it can result in death.
Tongue piercings can cause the tongue to swell; sometimes severe enough to block the airway/ Nerve damage is also possible during the piercing procedure. If this happens you may encounter “numb-tongue”, which is sometimes temporary, but can be permanent. This injured nerve can affect your sense of taste, how you move your mouth, and affect your speech. Damage to the tongues blood vessels can cause serious blood loss.
The hepatitis foundation identifies piercing as a way of contracting Hepatitis B,C,D, and G. The National Institutes of Health has identified piercing as a vector of disease transmission of Hepatitis B, Tetanus, and Localized Tuberculosis.
Ohio State University conducted a study in 2003 where they took 58 young adults, 29 with lip piercings, and 29 without lip piercings. The 29 adults who had lip piercings were found to have significantly greater recessed gums (41.4%), whereas among the group who did not have lip piercings were at 6.9%. The group of young adults who had a lip piercing had an average recessed gum depth that was more than double those without a lip piercing.
Athletes who wear mouth guards for sports are also at a risk of medical and dental related injury since the tongue and lip jewelry will often interfere with the placement of the mouth guard.
If you had an oral piercing and are seeing recessed gums, contact your general dentist, and if needed they can refer you to us for gum grafting.
Our colleagues in other dental offices help spread the word by informing their patients at their routine exams about the harmful short term and long term effects of oral piercings. So, for more information, talk to your general dentist and check out this link to webmd for more info.
