Dentists caution against oral piercings

Growing clinical evidence suggests piercing the tongue or the lips increases the risk of gum disease, painful infections and tooth loss


People who jab gold studs through their lips and pierce their tongues with silver bars are not usually eager to hear a lecture on gum disease. But Dr John K. Brooks tries anyway: Oral jewellery, the dentist tells them, can cost you a tooth. "The patients I've been successful with are the ones that had pain and infection. They're much more ready to be convinced,'' Brooks says.

Brooks and two colleagues at the University of Maryland Dental School say there is growing clinical evidence that oral piercings increase the risk of gum disease, painful infections and tooth loss.

They present their case in last month's issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). "The profession does not advocate people wearing piercings,'' Brooks says, "and we want to discourage people who wear piercings.'' With professors Kenny A. Hooper and Mark A. Reynolds, Brooks' report on five patients who suffered gum loss and other dental problems were traced to their lip and tongue studs.

People who insist on wearing studs in their mouths "have to maintain exquisite oral hygiene, brushing and flossing,'' says Brooks. But even so, "there is no escaping that they will be at risk for damage to their gums and their teeth.''

The JADA paper is the latest of several that have appeared in the medical literature since 1997, raising alarms about the dental consequences of oral piercing. There have been no large-scale studies so far, and the warnings are based on reports of a few dozen individual cases.

The most common injuries are chips and fractures - in as many as 80 per cent of the patients in one small survey cited by Brooks. Twenty per cent of patients in another small survey had suffered at least some gum loss adjacent to their studs. Reynolds, co-author of the JADA paper and a gum disease specialist, says the association between oral jewellery and gum disease seems clear: Gum loss occurs near studs, in places where young people without the jewellery rarely experience it.

How does this damage happen? Brooks says the relentless wear and tear on the gums leads to chronic inflammation as the body tries to guard against infection, remodel and repair the tissues. The gum tissue breaks down and deeper down "you begin to have destruction of the tissues that hold the gum to the roots,'' he says.

Bacteria that live naturally in the mouth rush in, and their chemical byproducts create pockets behind the gums. More food and bacteria accumulate, adding to the damage. The consequences are pain, infection and tooth loss.

©Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service