Oral piercings.

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Monday October 29th, 2007 @ 2:49 AM

Filed under: Lip/Cheek

One of my friends really want a lip piercing, but she is afraid this will damage her teeth. I know about teflon-jewelry and all, but does that eliminate all risk? And a while ago a friend told me that tongue piercings were a bad idea, because no matter what jewelry you put in, the bacteria in your mouth would act on the jewelry, resulting in cavities. Is it right, or BS?

The situation involving bacteria reacting to the jewelry resulting in cavities, I’d be inclined to say it BS. As there are always a plethora of various bacteria within your mouth.

Unfortunately there is ALWAYS the risk of damage to a persons teeth and gums when they obtain an oral piercing. The only way to combat against this is by making sure you are wearing snug/fitted jewelry at all times. This means get it pierced let the swelling go down and switch to a shorter post,etc. As the longer the jewelry the more it’s going to impact against your teeth and gums.

Jewelry like PTFE (Teflon) and BioPlast/BioFlex (Polysulfones),etc although they are soft and flexible they still has a solid hard mass form about them when made into jewelry. They are not “soft and squishy” at all which would be the only type of material that might prevent tooth and gum damage. So although this material is flexible it still is hard and rigid (the balls, flat disc portion of labret studs,etc) as well and can still damage your teeth and gums.

So ideally the ONLY way to try and combat this is as soon as the swelling goes down, to get fitted with a snug fitted piece of jewelry. However depending on placement,etc this problem can still occur, it might just be prolonged/delayed.

Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback