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Tongue piercing – bad news for your teeth!
As with body jewellery worn on the upper or lower lip, tongue piercings are a matter of concern to orthodontists. In one American journal, a doctor describes the case of a patient who found that a sizeable gap appeared between her upper incisor teeth. This was where she had got into the habit of “wedging” the stem of her piercing …
As Dr Sawsan Tabaa of the University of Buffalo explains, “the presence of such implants on the tongue can lead to bad habits, such as pushing the metal between the incisors. This is very common. The danger is that over time a gap of a certain size will develop between the teeth”. Specialists call this a diastema.
This is precisely what happened in the case of one of her patients, aged 26. “She had had her piercing for 7 years. Several times a day she would wedge the stem between her two upper incisors”, Dr Tabaa explains. The result was that these teeth began gradually to move apart, although they had been perfectly aligned before the piercing was inserted.
According to Dr Tabaa, the best way to avoid extensive and costly orthodontic treatment is quite simply “not to have your tongue pierced”. She also explains that “these piercings can cause serious damage to the teeth”. In addition to the risk of diastema, she mentions the possibility of fractures or fissures … not forgetting “an increased risk of haemorrhage, infection and trauma to the gums”.
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