Oral piercing: A risky fashion

Abstract

Piercing is a more prevalent ancient form of body art all over the world, recently popularity attained in Western society. For centuries, piercing was part of many cultures and religious rites. Ancient Egyptians pierced their navels to signify royalty, Roman centurions wore nipple rings as a sign of virility and courage and Mayans pierced their tongues for spiritual purposes, The Eskimos and Aleuts pierced the lips of female infants as part of a purification ritual and the lower lip of the boys as part of passage into puberty. It is that apparent that oral piercings are becoming much more prevalent in today's society. Popular sites for body piercing include the ears, eyebrows, lips, nose, nipples, navel, penis, scrotum, labia, clitoris and tongue. Oral body art, as it is referred to, usually involves piercing of the tongue, cheeks, lips or uvula. The lip is the most commonly pierced site, but tongue piercing is becoming more prevalent. Due to increase in oral piercing, it is important for dental and medical professionals to have knowledge about piercings to educate their patients concerning risk factors, complications and optimal homecare for piercings.