Tongue Piercing May Cause Gapped Teeth

Tongue piercings.
A teen’s idea to be different and a parental and dental nightmare.

If you’re considering allowing your child to get a tongue piercing, you may want to consider not just the cost of the piercing and the stud but all the dental work down the line.

If your child continuously plays with the tiny barbell-shaped stud, pushing it against her upper front teeth, he or she may eventually force a gap between those teeth – a fraction-of-an-inch gap that may cost thousands of dollars in orthodontic bills to straighten!

The habit of pushing the metal stud between upper front teeth is sometimes referred to as “playing.”

Most people with pierced tongues never remove the barbell because the tongue is so vascular that leaving the stud out can result in healing of the opening in the tongue. It makes sense that constant pushing of the stud against the teeth would move them or drive them apart.

Now, a basic principle of dentistry is that force, over time, moves teeth.

Basic treatment for gapped teeth can be a fixed braces appliance to push the front teeth back together.

Tongue piercing can result in serious injury not just to teeth but has also been associated with hemorrhage, infection, chipped and fractured teeth, trauma to the gums and, in the worst cases, brain abscess.

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