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Dental Health and Oral Piercing

Individuals who pierce the lips, cheeks, or tongue are participating in oral piercing. Those who purchase these piercing are doing so because they wish to express themselves in an artful way. They however are exposing themselves to dental health risks when piercing the cheek, lip or tongue if they do so without consulting their dentist first. There are many health risks associated with oral piercing including infection, prolonged bleeding, pain and swelling, chipped or cracked teeth, injury to gums, interference with oral function, blood-borne diseases, and endocarditis.

Before you consent to receive an oral piercing you should learn about the risks you would be taking.

Inside your mouth are millions of bacteria, any of which can lead to infection if you have an oral piercing. Individuals with oral piercing also often handle the jewelry once it has been placed in the mouth, a habit that will increase the chance for oral infection.

When getting an oral piercing you are at risk for prolonged bleeding if a blood vessel is punctured by the needle while the piercing is being done. You can suffer serious blood loss while the difficult-to-control bleeding is brought under control.

It is common to experience pain and swelling after oral piercing. Severely swollen tongue can lead to airway restriction and inability to breath properly.

When you have oral jewelry the fact that your teeth can come into contact with this jewelry means that your teeth can become chipped or cracked because of the jewelry being in your mouth. If you happen to already have restorations such as crowns, and caps on your teeth, these restorations can be damaged if the oral jewelry comes into contact with them.

Metal jewelry such as those worn when an individual has oral piercing can actually cause injury to your soft tissue of your gums. This injury can cause your gums to recede. Gums that recede leave tooth roots vulnerable to decay and periodontal disease.

When an individual has oral jewelry they can experience excessive saliva. Excessive saliva can cause problems with chewing or swallowing.

Oral piercing can also put you at risk for transmitting hepatitis B, C, D and G. as well as an inflammation of the heart valves known as endocarditis.

Anyone with oral piercing should contact a dentist if they notice pain, bleeding, problems with breathing, or any signs of swelling or infections such as redness or fever. Anyone with oral piercing should make sure they see a dentist every 6 months for regular dental examinations and have the oral piercing examined to be sure that they are not causing any dental health problems.

Any piercing should be considered a wound until it has healed. Take special care to watch for signs of infection until the wound has healed.

Oral piercing carry with them a risk for damaged teeth or damaged oral jewelry either of which can leave loose chips of teeth or loose pieces of broken jewelry that can be swallowed which can be dangerous.

Before you agree to oral piercing, understand all these risk that you take and then if you feel the risks are worth it have a talk with your dentist so that your dentist can examine your mouth to be sure that your mouth is in good shape prior to getting your oral piercing. Your dentist can check your mouth after your piercing to be sure that everything is healthy.