There is an uptick in tongue piercings because more kids enjoy mouth jewelry as a fashion statement.  I hear that sensory pleasure and style are the benefits. Oh, and here’s another one - funding your dentist’s new boat. A steel barbell, commonly inserted after a tongue piercing, cracks molars.  Eventually, if you want to eat anything stronger than great-grandpa’s mush, then cosmetic dentistry will be required.

 

    CNN reported more dentists are observing tooth damage from long-stemmed barbells (ouch!) used as tongue jewelry.  Apparently, the steel ornament clatters against tooth enamel, especially chipping back molars, the teeth essential to chewing food.  That pierced decoration is a micro-hammer in the mouth and can lead to implants and other expensive dental repair.

 

    But what about those little steel balls like the one sported by Drew Barrymore recently?

 

    Gums can recede when a hard object continually rubs against them.  And while the long-stemmed barbells cause damage sooner, other tongue ornaments do take their toll on surrounding teeth and gums. While studying 52 young adults, researchers from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry and Ohio State University College of Dentistry found gum recession in 35 percent of subjects with pierced tongues for four or more years, and in 50 percent wearing long-stemmed barbells for two or more years as reported by Adina Carrel, DMD.

 

    Frankly, tongue jewelry repels me.  There is nothing more distracting than a shiny object fitted into one of the body’s biggest bacterial hotspots. Call me unhip, out of touch or judgmental.  Whatever.  Reports of tooth damage by tongue jewelry are escalating. I’m just saying.

 

    I don’t get it. Punching holes in tongues would violate the Geneva Convention if forced upon prison populations, but somehow, kids plunk down good money and submit to the procedure without anesthesia.  Healing can take about two weeks to a month, providing there are no complications from uncontrolled bleeding, infection or severe swelling.

 

    Always deal with a professional.

 

    CNN showed a video clip of tattoo artist Kiernan Dietrich who also performs body piercings.  A sleeve of colorful tattoos snaked up his arms as he stressed the importance of being educated in the profession.  He looked straight into the camera – with his one brown eye and one blue eye -  and bandied about terms like “microbiology” and “immunology.”   Somehow he still failed to raise my confidence quotient.

 

    I questioned a number of young adults as to why anyone would want to be radically pierced or multiply tattooed?  Quite a few admitted that the adrenalin rush of pain is compelling. Now when I see someone with a tongue piercing I view it as the outward sign of a budding masochist.

 

    Who does such things?

 

    A study reported in 2006 from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York presented results on 4,500 adolescents aged 12 to 21 and found that teens with body piercings are more likely to smoke cigarettes, use drugs and exhibit other types of unhealthy behavior.

 

    Every generation has its own take on shock value style and a tongue piercing may be just a passing phase for many.  But know that steel balls and barbells on the tongue can cause tooth fractures and gum damage.  Telling you that it’s a high price to pay is what’s on the tip of my tongue.