Oral piercing: A risky fashion

Abstract

Piercing is a more prevalent ancient form of body art all over the world, recently popularity attained in Western society. For centuries, piercing was part of many cultures and religious rites. Ancient Egyptians pierced their navels to signify royalty, Roman centurions wore nipple rings as a sign of virility and courage and Mayans pierced their tongues for spiritual purposes, The Eskimos and Aleuts pierced the lips of female infants as part of a purification ritual and the lower lip of the boys as part of passage into puberty. It is that apparent that oral piercings are becoming much more prevalent in today's society. Popular sites for body piercing include the ears, eyebrows, lips, nose, nipples, navel, penis, scrotum, labia, clitoris and tongue. Oral body art, as it is referred to, usually involves piercing of the tongue, cheeks, lips or uvula. The lip is the most commonly pierced site, but tongue piercing is becoming more prevalent. Due to increase in oral piercing, it is important for dental and medical professionals to have knowledge about piercings to educate their patients concerning risk factors, complications and optimal homecare for piercings.

Oral Piercing: A Pretty Risk—A Scoping Review of Local and Systemic Complications of This Current Widespread Fashion

“…Although piercers use non-toxic and hypoallergenic metals, such as titanium, gold, silver, and stainless steel, they often are not aware of sterilization procedures and the anatomy of the mouth, thus incurring possible complications for the patient's health [11,20,21].…”

Piercing sulla lingua in pronto soccorso. Implicazioni assistenziali

“…Vengono definiti 3 tipi di piercing alla lingua in base alla sede anatomica in cui viene praticato il foro: 9 1. frenulo (raro): lateralmente attraverso il frenulo; 2. lingua: verticalmente attraverso la scanalatura mediana e laterale della lingua o in alcuni casi "venoms piercing" o "snake bites (morso del serpente)" attraverso i lati della lingua; 3. punta della lingua: verticalmente attraverso la punta della lingua. I tipi di gioielli per tongue piercing sono essenzialmente 2: 1. bilanciere classico 2. bilanciere di nuova generazione "pressfit", che a differenza dei bilancieri convenzionali, per facilitarne la rimozione basta semplicemente tirare la parte in mezzo per rimuoverlo.…”

Oral and peri-oral piercings: impact on the gingival tissues

“…1 However, nowadays oral and body piercings are used as a form of selfexpression. 1 A 2012 systematic review of the prevalence of oral piercings in young adults from developed countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia reported that 5.2% of 11,249 young adults had an oral piercing. 2 A 2016 survey conducted by the Oral Health Foundation in the United Kingdom (UK) to investigate oral piercing trends found that tongue piercings were the most common oral site at 43%, followed by lip piercings at 33%.…”