Reprinted from the Health District's quarterly publication mailed to district residents (Spring 2005)

When his son wanted to get his tongue pierced, dentist Chris Yurk held his.

“He was 21 at the time, old enough to make his own decisions,” Dr.Yurk says. “But, as a dentist, I had some concerns.”

During his decade at Colorado State University’s Hartshorn Health Service, Dr.Yurk has seen the growing number of mouth piercings and the problems they can cause. Tongues are the most common oral piercing.

Dr. Yurk recently treated a young man who inadvertently bit down on the barbell in his tongue so hard that he cracked an upper molar and ended up having to have the tooth removed. In another case, Dr. Yurk recalls a young woman who was seen at Hartshorn after her piercing hit a nerve. Her tongue was so swollen that it threatened to block her airway and she ended up in the hospital emergency room.

“These are extreme cases, of course,” he says, “but it’s important for people to realize that there are risks associated with mouth piercings.”

Bev Sleight, a dental hygienist at the Health District’s Family Dental Clinic, is concerned about the potential medical risks of the trend.

“Because of the vascular nature of the tongue, there is also a risk of bacteria getting into the blood stream and causing infection elsewhere in the body, including the tissue around the heart,” she says. “People might have a health issue they aren’t aware of that could make a mouth piercing very risky.”

That risk of infection is increased if the piercing isn’t done under proper conditions. The Association of Professional Piercers offers guidelines for body piercers, but there is no regulation of the industry.

“The level of sterilization could vary greatly from one establishment to the next, which is a big concern when you’re talking about someone dealing with blood products,” Sleight says. “I even have people coming in who say a friend did it for them.”

One in five students who participated in a recent study at the University of Cincinnati said they had some type of complication resulting from a mouth piercing. Common side effects include deterioration of the gums and tooth enamel.

Tongue piercings aren’t all dentists discover when they ask patients to “Open wide.” People are getting mouth tattoos, splitting their tongues for a reptile look, “sharpening” their canines to resemble a vampire and having small jewels cemented to their teeth.

“I had a young woman in the other day with two piercings in her tongue,” Sleight says. “She said, ‘Everyone has one, so I got two.’

“People are very creative. There’s no limit to what they can come up with.”