What should I know about oral piercing?

Tongue and oral piercing

Updated Wednesday May 07, 2008

Brian Skellie
Member AAMI
Member ASTM
Committee F04 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices
Committee F04.12 on Metallurgical Materials

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The most common response we hear from our clients would be along the lines of,  "That's it?"  Our methods are designed to eliminate any risk or trauma during the procedure, physical or psychological. Individuals with a strong sense of self and a clear desire to wear a new piece of jewelry go through it effortlessly.

More detailed information about jewelry safety

Things that you should avoid ahead of time

Unfortunately, it is common for piercers to neglect aspects of safety that greatly affect your end result. We strive to eliminate the risks on our side. You provide the good sense and awareness to take care of the rest.

Chemical solutions do not effectively clean jewelry. Residues are impractical to remove to avoid poisoning, even with at minimum a triple rinse with sterile water.

• Jewelry should be cleaned by forced air removal autoclave steam sterilization and kept in a sealed sterile barrier system until the moment of use.

Non-sterile gloves are never safe enough to use for piercing, for stitches, catheters or for handling any invasive surfaces inserted under the skin.

• Sterilized gloves are safe for handling sterilized surfaces, and should be used properly to maintain asepsis for the piercing.

Clamps are unnecessary to hold tissue, and damage it during piercing.

• Gentle, dry tissue handling, following gentle muscle alignment makes aligning and holding tongues easy for us.

Mouthwash does not effectively degerm tissue to prepare your mouth for piercing.

• A surgical tissue preparation agent proven safe for mucous membranes should be used to avoid infection.

We use all new disposable equipment:

• a pointy little contrivance designed to open and gently enlarge a tiny incision instantly;
• a small amount of sterilized gauze to clean, dry and align the tissue to be pierced;
• nitrile gloves as barriers for our hands to prepare the area;
• sterilized nitrile gloves for the application of jewelry with aseptic technique;
• ASTM certified implant materials for jewelry;
• high filtration surgical masks for particulate barriers;
• eye protection for barriers against airborne droplets.

We gently soften and align your tissue by hand.

• We do not use clamps, guns or any other traumatic methods or tools.
• Putting in the jewelry takes only an instant.
• After the jewelry is in place, let your skin grow.
• Healthy saliva will protect it.

Avoid chemical and biological irritants.

• Anything that would burn or sting if it got in your eye (mouthwashes, toothpastes, spicy foods, alcohol, smoking, etc.) would interfere with the natural tissue repair and cause trouble for your healing process.

Hydration and good nutrition play a crucial role in healing.

• Cold water and healthy food in your system helps you get what you need to make room for your jewelry.
• Drinking purified water after eating (or drinking other liquids) will also help wash away food residues so they do not break down and encourage biological problems.

A healthy person should have new normal skin after two to four weeks. When it looks and feels like the surrounding tissue all the way through, the healing should be done. Happily ever after...

The process should be possible for you whether or not you can roll your tongue.
In fact there are a few good tongue stretching exercises that you can add to your routine depending on your flexibility.
 

Why do tongue piercings swell?

Tongues pierced with our methods do not usually swell significantly unless you irritate them during healing. Basically, a piercing that experiences swelling can be related directly to several things:

Trauma from clamps, a rough piercing or rough play.

• Let it relax at first, other than gentle stretching exercises with cold water or pieces of ice.

Contamination during or after the piercing.

• DON'T:  lick doorknobs, count change with your tongue, chew your fingernails, kiss or have oral sex without a barrier such as a condom while recovering.

Chemical reactions to just about anything that would burn or sting if it got in your eye

• Skip the tequila, smokes, hot sauce and passionate kisses for celebration until you are well healed.
• When you think that you are healed, give it another week or more, just in case...

Dehydration from not drinking enough fluids can lead to cramps

• Drink a very large amount of cold fluids
• Include electrolytes, potassium and calcium from things like bananas and sports drinks to help your muscle tone, saliva and immune response for the first week or more.
• Avoid high sodium foods.