The key facts

  • Gum problems occur in roughly every third wearer of oral piercing, tooth damage in every fifth (according to dentist Olga Tishkina)
  • Injuries are divided into acute (a chipped filling, crack, or tooth fracture from an unlucky movement) and chronic (constant pressure of the jewelry on the gum)
  • According to the doctor, there is no absolutely safe piercing option

Why oral piercing is dangerous

Tongue or lip piercing can lead to inflammation, chronic gum problems, and even a fractured tooth. Trauma dentist, associate professor at the Department of Disaster Medicine at RUDN University and chief physician of the New Iceberg Center for Natural Dentistry, Olga Tishkina, told Gazeta.Ru about this.

Special healing conditions

According to Tishkina, the oral cavity is a unique environment for healing. On the one hand, the mucous membrane is well supplied with blood, kept moist by saliva, and recovers quickly. On the other hand, it is practically impossible to leave the puncture site alone: when talking, chewing, swallowing, and moving the lips and tongue, food of varying temperature and consistency passes over it several times a day.

Two groups of injuries

The doctor divided piercing-related problems into acute and chronic. An acute injury is the result of a single unlucky movement: catching or tugging the jewelry can injure the mucous membrane, cause bleeding, chip a filling or crown, and if a metal part gets between the teeth, it can result in a chip, crack, or tooth fracture. Chronic injuries accumulate over time: the piercing piece often constantly presses against the gum, which in some cases leads to gum recession and in others to tissue overgrowth and keratinization.

Prevalence and care

Tishkina noted that dental problems after tongue or lip piercing are not uncommon: roughly every third wearer of the jewelry sooner or later faces gum problems, and every fifth faces tooth damage. Hundreds of species of microorganisms live in the mouth, and food debris often gets stuck on the jewelry and around the puncture, around which bacterial plaque accumulates. Therefore, according to the doctor, not only regular dental hygiene is important, but also regular cleaning of the jewelry itself.

There is no completely safe option

“There is no absolutely safe piercing option: you can get injured even with the highest-quality and most expensive jewelry,” Tishkina concluded. For those who have chosen this form of self-expression, she recommended maintaining hygiene of the piercing channel and the jewelry, monitoring the condition of the gums, not playing with the metal parts using the tongue, and regularly visiting the dentist for check-ups.