Sunday is International Body Piercing Day and a great time for a PSA on oral piercings! The American Dental Association published numerous articles about this, saying that they do not recommend an oral piercing. Why? First, many people who have their tongue pierced play or fiddle with it. They can chip their teeth, fillings, or crowns. Then there are obvious health and infection issues from not keeping the pierced site clean enough, especially while the new piercing is healing; bacteria from the mouth can get into the bloodstream.
Oral piercings can lengthen orthodontic treatment time. When the jewelry in your mouth gets hooked to your braces, it can happen so fast that before you know it, you’ve either broken your braces, or worse, the jewelry is torn from your tongue or lip. Damaged braces or a massive amount of oral trauma has the potential to add months to your orthodontic treatment. So, our suggestion is to avoid (or remove) oral piercings with braces!