TONGUE BARS, RINGS,
IS IT WORTH DYING FOR?
This young lady came in today 10/1/03 with a temperature and bilateral infection posterior to both 2nd molars and severe infection in her tongue and tenderness in the Mylohyoid muscle under her tongue. We immediately placed her on Cleocin (Clindomycin) as she was already having difficulty swallowing and I was afraid this might be the beginning of a Ludwig's Angina which can be fatal if allowed to progress as the patients breathing is cut off. Also on the underside of the tongue was this large growth around the tongue bar (shown above) . We immediately got her over to the Oral Surgeon for a biopsy and observation this same day. The tongue bar had been placed only 4 months ago..... 10/8 ... one week later and still much infection ... entire face is swollen .. tongue still badly infected!
DISEASE (HEPATITIS C, INFECTION, Etc.) AND A POSSIBLE EARLY DEATH!
Forget about the tooth breakage, it is the possible life threatening involvement of tongue piercing that is the reason to not ever do it! if you have already done it ... Remove the post RIGHT NOW!
In a huge percentage of those that get Hepatitis C there is none of the common known risk factors, such as drug use, cocaine use, etc. ... It is my opinion that these unknown reasons for transmission are from tattoos, body and especially tongue piercing! I realize this page is pretty strong and shocking .. If I can just make one kid stop and think and realize that there are many reasons not to blindly do some of these things this page has been worth it!
When you puncture muscle you usually drive epithelial (skin) cells into the muscle that can become embedded in the muscle for life! These embedded tongue surface skin cells could turn to cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma) proliferate later in life just like any cyst or tumor can These would be almost impossible to find early! There is no research yet on this danger ... But, by the time there is it could be too late. It only makes sense that this constant irritation would lead to dysplasia and inta-oral cancer.
But ... The most important thing is to REMOVE IT IMMEDIATELY TO PREVENT HEPATITIS C AND OTHER DISEASES! When you put a post through a muscle that is constantly moving there may always be exposed muscle and openings into one's blood stream that could be like using a hypodermic needle. Hepatitis C usually occurs during any needle or piercing procedure if the needle or piercing device is infected, but I believe that infection is possible long after that, especially in tongue piercing, due to the open hole through the muscle in the lounge.
Other diseases are bacterial endocarditis of the heart in due to all the bacteria from the mouth entering the wound 24hrs a day! Brain abscesses have been linked to tongue piercing due to all the bacteria getting into the blood stream and settling in the brain. Ludwig's angina, an infection in the neck muscles and fatal if not caught early ... you choke to death! There are cases of permanent numbness and loss of taste from nerve damage! ... Even one case of a girl's tongue stud struck by lightning ... but she lived ... see below.
After removing your post for good I think it would be a good thing to have a hepatitis C blood test run at your nearest walk in clinic or at your doctors office to see that you don't have it already. If you are already positive you can start really taking care of yourself .. eating well and stay off of anything you can that is metabolized by your liver.
Once one gets hepatitis C you can come down with it at once .. It could be chronic for about 20 years .. You could be a carrier that whole time ... at that point a high percentage could die from it. Many of the rest could have compromised livers and slowly develop scaring and liver failure. During this whole period if you are a carrier you could pass it on to your babies and family members if you were not careful. I have heard that the center for disease control has estimated that in a decade or so there will be more people dying from Hepatitis C than aids in the USA. .... I have also heard that 50 - 70% of those with multiple tattoos may already be Hepatitis C positive as per the Veterans Association.
Now .. those that have financial gain may present a very different story .. But.... IT'S YOUR LIFE KID! ... Don't remove the post because your folks or teachers don't like it! .. Remove it for yourself! ... And, conversely .. Please be strong enough to think for yourself and don't just be a follower!
Here in Redding CA at Mercy Medical Center the protocol is that no one wearing a tongue ring or bar will be hired or will be fired immediately if they get one because, when one speaks with these the person spits volumes of particles of saliva due to the difficulty of speaking correctly and trying to keep the metal ball away from the teeth. They feel that the increased risk to the other personnel and patients to infection is too great to tolerate and they feel they are also protecting the wearer of the tongue ring due to their highly increased risk to infection by route of the open wound in the tongue in the hospital environment with so many infectious agents around.
Now!!! ... This also brings us to restaurant personnel with these, talking and spraying spittle on food. A warning and ban on persons working around food with these is in the works right now here in Shasta County too. If it's too dangerous to be working in a hospital due to the disease factor it is only obvious they should not be allowed to work around food either!!!!!!!
To find more and updated info on this please type into all of the largest search engines ... (Danger, Tongue Piercing) .. (Hepatitis C, tongue piercing) ..and (tongue piercing, hepatitis c) and (body piercing, hepatitis c). (tattoos, hepatitis C) here below are a few I just typed in tonight in a few minutes ... a couple links out of hundreds!