A few words about Tongue and Oral Piercings from our professional body piercer

Tongue Piercings

The tongue is two muscle complexes joined down the centerline by connective tissue. The two muscles allow the tongue to have all the mobility it needs to assist with speech, eating and the reflex of swallowing and drinking fluids. So it's health is very important.

Now contrary to what some dental professionals will say about the tongue piercing and the jewellery involved in this piercing, a professionally done tongue piercing, on a responsible client poses no hazard to the gums or teeth. Again I qualify this by saying a "professionally performed piercing", "on a responsible client". Not all piercers are professional in the delivery of a service to a client. Not all clients are responsible individuals. It's a 50/50 deal.

A properly placed tongue piercing with the correct size jewellery for the initial piercing to accommodate the tongue's swelling in the first 2 weeks (that’s a full 14 days) should be plenty to allow for the swelling of the tongue and the resolution to occur in a normally health individual following the aftercare instructions they have been provided with (in writing as well as verbal instruction).

How the client looks after the piercing is another matter all together………

What any really good professional piercer will tell you should be:

1. Use cold stuff as much as possible as often as possible (Popsicle's, freezes, ice) to keep the swelling controlled. The use of ice or crushed ice is important first thing in the morning to bring the swelling down.

2. Ibuprofen, Advil should be taken during the day and before bed time (this is when the swelling will be at it's worst), these are anti-inflamitories they are to control the swelling allowing the piercing to heal.

3. Chamomile tea is a great natural anti-inflammatory and will work great as Chamomile Ice cubes sweetened to taste.

4. When brushing the teeth, do not brush the tongue, this can aggravate the piercing and serves no real purpose.

5. Using mouth washes, if you use one now when you brush carry on doing so and rinse as you would normally. If you are not using a mouthwash currently you can start now but don't get carried away using it (once in the morning and once at night is plenty). Between mouthwashes, just use cold water to swish and swallow after meals.

6. The recommendation to rinse with any mouth wash several times a day is solely based on BS and is just stupid, this is just about the dumbest thing you could do is to ignore common sense and listen to that form of bad advice. If you over use a mouthwash you can run a real good chance of triggering Thrush. This is an oral bacteria that invades the mouth and can effect the tongue, generally kept at bay by other good bacteria in the mouth, the over use of mouthwashes can throw the balance out. That allows the Thrush bacteria to get a foot hold on the mouth and cause some real issues.

7. Avoid spicy foods and overly hot foods that can irritate you tongue during the first 2 weeks.

8. Dairy products IE: Milk, Cream, Ice Cream, Yogurt, Cheese, Pudding. These should be avoided for the first 2 weeks. Not because they can cause issues but more over because they are dairy products, they can support bacterial growth and they leave a residue with can irritate the piercing.

9. You should stick to an easy to eat diet for the first 2 weeks, soups and sandwiches easy going food that don’t involve a lot of chewing, this makes life easy for your tongue and simpler for you.

10. Do not use woo woo magic piercing aftercare sprays, mouthwashes or any other hocus pocus aftercare solutions or sprays on your piercing. Listen if you can't buy it at the pharmacy or grocery store you don't need it { be aware of the cash grab, some places will tell you that you need it…. you don't really }.

In two weeks you should get the longer barbell changed to a shorter one if the swelling has gone down, which it should have if you followed the aftercare instructions you were given.

Here's why. The piercing is well on the way to healing however it's not completely healed. In fact it's far from being healed, but the body has a good hold of the situation and no longer needs to guard the piercing with the swelling* (*meant to immobilize or restrict the movement to protect the tongue)

Leaving the longer barbell in the piercing when it should be shortened will without a doubt lead to dental damage, chipped teeth, gum erosion and a whole host of other things the dentists love to complain about. So go in and get a shorter barbell in there. the tongue swings from side to side as we chew so the longer barbell without swelling limiting it's motion can in fact get under the chewing teeth. The shorter barbell will prevent this from being possible by staying more centered in the midline of the tongue and out of harms way.

As the piercing seasons or becomes tougher and more established during the first year of healing it may be necessary to change the barbell for and even shorter one in time. So if you can easily play with the barbell that should be your cue to get the shorter barbell before you boo boo and take a bite out of a tooth or barbell.

A word about plastic barbells and using them for doing the initial piercing. this is a bad idea for a few reasons. The metal barbell keeps the piercing straight and allows the tongue to discharge as it heals. The plastic barbell lulls you into a false sense of security, the bar flexes and you start to play with the piercing while it's trying to heal. This flex also prevents the tongue from discharging as it should and can prolong the healing time. Plastic is cheap and bottom line anything made of plastic will fail over time and abuse. Do you want the balls coming free in your throat in the middle of the night? Of course you are going to check the balls when you brush your teeth before bed right? Yeah o.k.

Swelling as we have noted here is the most important thing to keep under control, it's best to be on top of the swelling than to be trying to control it once it's got a hold of you (this is always much harder to deal with when you have ignored the piercing).

Any time you think you are having issues with your tongue piercing you should seek the assistance of your professional body piercer first. Only a seasoned professional body piercer can zero in on what may be the issue faster than anyone else. From there based on the piercer's knowledge and experience they can guild you to the right place for further assistance should it be needed, after all it's what we do.

If you think you have trouble with your piercing contact your piercer and NEVER remove the jewellery from a suspected infected piercing.