The Painful Truth About Tongue Piercing

By Jodee Fong

"I feel like crap," Amanda wrote on her Facebook page after she has just gotten her "ultimately cool" birthday present -- tongue piercing. Later the same day, she collapsed and died at home.

It is a rare case that people die of tongue piercing.

The 34-year-old woman passed away 48 hours after her birthday celebration, when bacteria reached her bloodstream from the 22mm piercing hole. She has reportedly complained about her swollen tongue and sore throat the day after receiving the gift that she has always wanted.

According to the autopsy, she died from septicemia and acute tonsillitis, which may be developed from an equipment the police found at the piercing parlour containing “bacteria associated with poor hygiene”.

This brings us to question: how far should one go for accessorizing your body and fitting in?

The practice of tongue-piercing can be traced back to the ancient history, however. Back then, it was not a fashion statement of juvenility or dare. It was performed in a ritual form by the ancient Aztecs in which the tongue was pierced to draw blood to appease and communicate with the Gods. With the change of values in the modern society, it has become a trendy statement since the 90s’, especially for “emo”s, rebels and punk rockers. They do it for a myriad of reasons, be it peer pressure, a sense of identity, shock value or pleasure enhancement.

Josh, a certified piercer who has been in the practice for three years, says that it is mostly young girls who get their tongues pierced.

Rachel Darby is a teenager who has had her tongue pierced out of boredom and peer pressure. "Anticipation was the worst part. For starters, they check your tongue and see if it’s good and the right shape to pierce. Then they mark two dots on your tongue below and above where the bar will sit. A clamp is then placed to provide support and numb it a little, and a bib is placed on you because you will dribble -- that’s when the BIGGEST needle I've ever seen came towards my mouth. It wasn't as fun as I've expected. You could literally feel it pierced every layer of tissue and muscle and come out the other side. And then he left the needle in and put the bar on the top and pushed it through, [at] the same time the needle drops and the balls are screwed on.”

You may have heard about the common ramifications of tongue piercing: gum disease, tooth fracture and enamel loss from the tongue metal bar’s constant hitting against the front teeth, tooth loss, severe periodontal problems such as massive pain when a cavity exists, and even a higher chance of infecting the HIV and difficulties in talking and eating.

These are nothing in comparison to the most life-threatening side effects of tongue piercing: a disorder called trigeminal neuralgia or “suicide disease”. It causes excruciating facial pain that can be compared to an electric shock or a stab.

“There are people who have been dropped to their knees [by this infection]”, says Alana Greca, a registered nurse and director of patient support for the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. “That’s how intense and how horrendous the pain can be.”

The disorder can be brought by triggers such as eating, brushing your teeth, even smiling. It attacks irregularly and can last from seconds to minutes on one side of the face. This extreme pain usually develops after the age of 50 and affects women more than men. A recent research has suggested that such disorder also happens to people with tongue piercings which causes compression of the root of the trigeminal nerve by a wrong positioned blood vessel. If the disorder persists, depression could occur.

Unfortunately for the victims, the available medicines are either ineffective in relieving pain or contain too many side effects. The only permanent cure is undergoing surgery that could result in permanent or temporary numbness of the face. Surgical procedures include removing or relocating the blood vessels that are compressing the trigeminal nerve; or destroying the affected parts of the nerve.

In Italy, a young woman’s mouth jewelry costed her trigeminal neuralgia with stabbing pains in her face that lasted 10 to 30 seconds and struck 20 to 30 times a day. When all the medications fail, she simply removed the metal stud. Two days later, her pain vanished. However this is not the case for everyone.

After her serious infection, a woman decided to remove the stud. Later, it has developed so much scar tissue that it resembled what she called a “second tongue.”

According to the American Dental Association (ADA), it is recommended not to remove the jewelry from a piercing before it is completely healed in cases of infections. Even though piercings generally get smaller in size, they probably will not close completely even when the jewelry is taken out. Scar tissues inside the piercings may even develop and create a bump in the skin.

You would not have guessed how little knowledge body piercers have on this issue. When asked about how to treat customers suffering from severe side effects of tongue piercing, Josh, a certified body piercer, said, “yeah sometimes [it happens.] Their [tongues] swell up really bad and [customers] have to wait till it goes down, but if they just take it out then there is no problem.”

Besides the potential risks arising from tongue piercing, there is a lack of systematic training and certification for piercers.

The set of safety protocol that he performs is “basically always were your gloves and make sure everything is sterilized and clean and that’s about it. And make sure you give [customers] aftercare so they can look after it....that’s basically it.”
A 22 years old girl is now dreadfully regrettable of her choice she made when she was 14. “It (tongue piercing) was sort of outdated even then but I didn’t care. It screws up your teeth and I ended up taking it out when I was 17 [...] I hate the way it looks when your teeth are chipped and trust me, they’ll get chipped even with a plastic barbell. It’s not worth it. [...] You’ll get sick of it fast.”

Whether or not one should get tongue piercing is up to his/her personal preferences. But with the immature system of piercing training and the high risk of side effects, the pros and cons should undoubtedly be balanced out before making a decision...