How Bad Is Tongue Piercing Pain

The healing process of a tongue piercing may vary from person to person. However, with proper aftercare, the body typically treats the piercing like a scar healing.

A tongue piercing creates a wound in one of the most bacteria-filled parts of the body: the mouth. It is difficult to keep a tongue piercing clean, which further increases the risk of infection, especially during the healing process.

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There have been few studies into how common tongue piercing infections are, but the warm, moist site of the piercing makes it a prime spot for bacteria to grow. Contact with food may further increase this risk.

How To Prevent Gum Recession With A Tongue Piercing

People with tongue piercings developed infections. Proper care can help the wound heal, reducing the risk of infection and helping keep the piercing in place.

Read on to learn more about the stage-by-stage healing process of a tongue piercing, as well as some associated risks and treatment options.

People’s bodies are all different, so the healing process varies from person to person. People with weak immune systems due to diabetes, cancer, HIV, and some medications may need longer to heal and can also be more vulnerable to infection.

Oral Piercings Or Tongue Piercing

Immediately after the piercing, the wound may feel very sore and irritated. A person might have trouble talking and adapting to the new sensation in the mouth. However, they should avoid touching the piercing or knocking the piercing with the teeth, as this can increase irritation.

At first, it may be necessary to put food directly on the teeth in order to chew. Some people also choose to consume smoothies or other liquid foods for the first few days, until they adjust to eating with the jewelry in place.

In these early days, it is vital to rinse the mouth with a saline solution several times each day. Most piercers recommend using a quarter teaspoon of iodine-free salt mixed in 8 ounces of warm water. Do not use stronger solutions or antibiotic creams unless a doctor recommends it. Follow all instructions the piercer gives.

Tongue Piercing Guide

Also, use a new toothbrush after getting a new tongue piercing. This reduces the risk of accidentally introducing additional bacteria to the site.

. The wound may also bleed or ooze. A small amount of bleeding is normal, but consistent bleeding may signal a problem. After a few days, the wound may also ooze a whitish or clear fluid.

When the swelling decreases, replace the jewelry with a shorter piece of jewelry. Leaving longer jewelry in place increases irritation and may damage the teeth. It is safest to have a piercer do this.

Tongue Piercing Healing: Day By Day

Piercings heal from the outside in, which means that the outermost tissue of the tongue heals first. This means that while the piercing may look less irritated, it is actually still healing for a month or longer.

By this stage in the healing process, it should have become less painful and will start to feel relatively normal. However, a person may still need time to adapt to the piercing.

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Tongues heal quickly, which means that the piercing may close if a person removes the jewelry, even for a short period of time.

Tongue Piercing, What You Want To Know

If there are no complications, complete healing usually takes around 4–6 weeks. If there is still swelling after a month, or if the piercing becomes painful or swollen after a period of seeming fine, this may signal an infection or other problem.

After a few months, the body treats the piercing as a scar, and the piercing is less likely to close without jewelry in it. The risk of infection also greatly decreases. However, people with poor oral hygiene, weak immune systems, and mouth injuries may still be vulnerable to infection.

Of oral health problems, including infected gums and teeth. A tongue bar, particularly a large or heavy one, may knock into the teeth. This may lead to broken teeth, infections in the gums or teeth, and similar oral health problems.

Tongue Piercing Faq

The most significant risk associated with a tongue piercing is that the wound will become infected shortly after the piercing. Most infections are mild, however, and a doctor can easily treat them with oral antibiotics.

, a person might develop a more serious infection, such as an abscess. This would require them to stay in the hospital or receive intravenous antibiotics.

Complications

Most tongue piercings do not require special treatments or medications. Rinsing with a saline solution a few times per day is usually enough to keep the piercing clean. Some other strategies that can speed healing include:

What Is Wrong With My Tongue Piercing? It's 14 Days Old, I Downsized On Day 10. Stinging Pain In Hole (mostly On Bottom).

Do not try to treat an infected piercing at home. An infection is potentially serious. It can cause severe scarring and may even spread to other areas of the body. If a person suspects an infection, it is best to make an appointment with a doctor.

Many piercers can help with home remedies that ease discomfort and speed healing. However, the advice of a piercer is not a substitute for a consultation with a doctor.

For most people who take the necessary steps to ensure that it remains clean, a tongue piercing heals quickly and does not cause serious complications.

Worried You May Have An Infected Tongue Piercing? Signs, Symptoms, And Treatment

It may hurt for a few days and swell for a few more, but these symptoms are normal parts of the healing process.

Severe pain, long-term swelling, trouble talking, and eating difficulties are not normal, but they are treatable. A person should see a doctor or healthcare provider if they experience any of these symptoms.

ORAL

Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.A system providing disabled persons with control of various assistive devices with the tongue has been developed at Aalborg University in Denmark. The system requires an activation unit attached to the tongue with a small piercing. The aim of this study was to establish and evaluate a safe and tolerable procedure for medical tongue piercing and to evaluate the expected and perceived procedural discomfort.

Do Tongue Piercings Hurt?

Four tetraplegic subjects volunteered for the study. A surgical protocol for a safe insertion of a tongue barbell piercing was presented using sterilized instruments and piercing parts. Moreover, post-procedural observations of participant complications such as bleeding, edema, and infection were recorded. Finally, procedural discomforts were monitored by VAS scores of pain, changes in taste and speech as well as problems related to hitting the teeth.

The piercings were all successfully inserted in less than 5 min and the pain level was moderate compared with oral injections. No bleeding, infection, embedding of the piercing, or tooth/gingival injuries were encountered; a moderate edema was found in one case without affecting the speech. In two cases the piercing rod later had to be replaced by a shorter rod, because participants complained that the rod hit their teeth. The replacements prevented further problems. Moreover, loosening of balls was encountered, which could be prevented with the addition of dental glue. No cases of swallowing or aspiration of the piercing parts were recorded.

The procedure proved simple, fast, and safe for insertion of tongue piercings for tetraplegic subjects in a clinical setting. The procedure represented several precautions in order to avoid risks in these susceptible participants with possible co-morbidity. No serious complications were encountered, and the procedure was found tolerable to the participants. The procedure may be used in future studies with tongue piercings being a prerequisite for similar systems, and this may include insertion in an out-patient setting.

Will Tongue Piercing Damage My Teeth And Gums?

Current assistive devices for tetraplegics offer text input and control of a pointing device at different levels depending on the principles employed for their activation[1]. Further, they include different trade-offs related to user preferences such as unconstrained movements and aesthetic factors. Sip-n-puff systems provide a good proportional control (i.e., both speed and direction in real time) of a pointing device. This also applies to a chin joystick as well as a head control system. However, an onscreen keyboard is required to input text. Furthermore, face muscles have been used in systems generating on-off switch commands. However, users of these systems often report induced muscle fatigue and pain as main drawbacks. Speech recognition systems provide a remarkable text input and assure a minimal constraint for the user[2, 3], but correction of false commands still needs to be addressed in the further development of these systems. Moreover, eye control systems provide a good proportional control of pointing devices, but limitations occur in low or changing light[4, 5]. Brain computer interfaces have received increasing interest for control of assistive devices[6], though technical challenges still remain regarding the practical implementation in daily life due to a rather low detection rate of user intentions. Practically invisible when used, intra-oral tongue controlled systems have been developed using switch arrays, pressure, resistive, capacitive, magnetic or optical sensors embedded in a palatal brace[7–11]. Nevertheless, the extraordinary flexibility of the tongue has not been fully exploited for providing both direct text input and proportional control of a