Dental Glam and Oral Piercings

I love watching the Olympics - I even went to the Vancouver Olympics! However, the advantage of the at-home viewing experience now with HD screens is seeing the athlete’s faces and expressions, like their smiles.

I was with a group of my dentist friends during the first days of the Olympics, and you can only imagine how we watched the Olympics. We scrutinized the athlete’s teeth! You can’t miss some things like the very own unique style of Team USA's Alysa Liu’s smile.

They say that Alysa has taken creative control of every aspect of her performance, and that includes the little shiny thing on her two front teeth. Those are not gems on Liu's teeth. It's actually a prominent frenulum piercing, connected on the upper part of her gums. It's noticeable given how much she smiles, and it's commonly known as the "smiley" piercing. I read that she proudly reports she did it herself. This prompted me to read more about this increasingly popular trend.

There are several types of oral piercings, some of which I have seen on patients in my office in Darien, CT or on patients I have seen at various volunteer clinics:
Smiley Piercing (Lip Frenulum): Placed through the thin tissue connecting the upper lip to the gums, visible primarily when smiling.
Tongue Web Piercing (Marley Piercing): Placed through the web under the tongue, which is easily hidden.
Frowny Piercing: The less common inverse of the smiley, located in the lower lip frenulum.

There are serious healing considerations and risks involved in such piercings. Due to the thinness of the tissue, these piercings have a high risk of rejection or being torn out, and the metal pieces can be swallowed or aspirated. They can cause significant damage to teeth and gums if the jewelry rubs or hits against them. This can cause the teeth to have nerve damage and require root canal treatment or extraction. There is a 2 minute Youtube video on how to do a Smiley Piercing. Where did the instruments come from? Were they sterilized? Probably not.

This is not the only self-administered "Dental Glam" going on. I recently had a patient come in to confess she did something to her front tooth that she thought was temporary, but now it wouldn’t come off. She had applied a small zirconia diamond-like crystal to her front tooth, using a kit that included a type of dental adhesive and a little blue light. I had to drill off the crystal, and polish the tooth.

It is an exotic world out of there of dental glam choices. I think for the health of your mouth and teeth (and perhaps even your life!) it would be better to stick with jewelry and makeup outside of the mouth.