It is the latest fashion, to get the unusual places in your body pierced, but have you ever wondered if you can be prone to certain kinds of tooth abnormalities, you can have a nice tongue piercing and it wouldn't go well with your gaped teeth, now, would it?
According to a study by the university at Buffalo, they claim to say that 'Playing" with a pierced-tongue stud can eventually result in a gap between the front teeth. The primary investigator , Sawsan Tabbaa said that, “It is a basic tenet of orthodontic that force, over time, moves teeth."
As per the studies revealed , Tabbaa has said that a previous UB dental school survey study of Buffalo high school students revealed that the presence of a barbell implant/stud caused a damaging habit whereby subjects pushed the metal stud up against and between their upper front teeth, a habit commonly referred to among the students as "playing." She also said that these cases happen at very high percent.
"It is a basic tenet of orthodontic that force, over time, moves teeth," said the study''s primary investigator, Sawsan Tabbaa, assistant professor of orthodontics at the UB School of Dental Medicine. The repeated "playing" with the stud may result in a gap as is demonstrated in Tabbaa''s current case study.
This study was done on a 26 year old female patient who had complained that the large space had developed between her her upper central incisors or upper front teeth, this patient however had a barbell-shaped tongue stud. The patient had stated that her tongue was pierced seven years earlier and every day for seven years she had pushed the stud between her upper front teeth, creating the space between them and thye patient did not have a space between the upper front tooth prior to the tongue piercing.
Tabbaa had stated that, “The barbell is never removed because the tongue is so vascular that leaving the stud out can result in healing of the opening in the tongue, so it makes perfect sense that constant pushing of the stud against the teeth -- every day with no break -- will move them or drive them apart."
For the cause of the midline space, the patient had said that she had no diastema or space before she had pierced her tongue.
Tabbaa stated that , “Tongue piercing can result in serious injury not just to teeth but has also been associated with hemorrhage, infection, chipped and fractured teeth, trauma to the gums and, in the worst cases, brain abscess."
The patient who the study was done on , her treatment involved a fixed braces appliance to push the front teeth back together.