Researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB), NY, have found that atongue piercing may cause a gap between teeth, resulting in the need fororthodontic intervention. The findings have been published in the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics.
The study involved a 26-year-old female patient who complained that alarge space had developed between her upper central incisors. Thepatient also had a tongue piercing that held a barbell-shaped tonguestud.
?Her tongue had been pierced 7 years earlier, and every day for 7years the patient had pushed the stud between her upper front teeth,creating the space between them and, subsequently, habitually placing itin the space. Prior to the tongue piercing, the patient did not have aspace between her upper front teeth. The patient provided the researchteam with photos that demonstrated she had no diastema prior to havingher tongue pierced.
A previous UB dental school survey study of Buffalo high school studentsrevealed that the presence of a barbell implant or stud caused adamaging habit whereby subjects pushed the metal stud up against andbetween their upper front teeth, a habit commonly referred to among thestudents as "playing."
That repeated "playing" with the stud may result in a gap as isdemonstrated in the current case study, according to the researchers.
The current patient’s treatment involved a fixed appliance to push the front teeth back together.
In other studies, tongue piercing has also been associated withhemorrhage, infection, chipped and fractured teeth, trauma to the gumsand, in worst cases, brain abscess, according to the UB researchers.
