Repair Damage From Dental Accessories

Girl with a pierced tongue.

Self-expression can take a variety of forms—unique clothes, colorfully-dyed hair, or oral piercings, for example. However, unlike clothes and hair color, oral piercings can have a lasting impact on the wearer, particularly from a dental health perspective.

If you’re considering or currently have lip piercings, a tongue piercing, cheek piercing, or any other decorative hardware around the mouth, here’s why you should schedule a visit with a Boston cosmetic dentist.

Metal + Enamel = Potential Problems

Just as most people couldn’t resist wiggling a loose tooth as children, tongue and lip piercings tend to be the focus of nervous energy. The compulsion to flick, click, and roll them around the mouth is common, which means they often come into contact with teeth. While exceptionally solid by design, teeth aren’t made to stand up to metal continually striking them. It can wear, chip, or even crack tooth enamel over time.

What To Do if You Chip a Tooth

If you experience cracks, chips, or noticeable wear due to piercing contact, our cosmetic dentists will be happy to help repair the damage. It’s important to get dental issues like these diagnosed and treated as soon as possible because a broken dental surface can erode further, or give oral bacteria a place to hide.

Dental Hygiene May Be Affected

Brushing, flossing, and generally keeping the mouth clean are extremely important for those with oral piercings. Because the piercing sites and the piercings themselves offer additional surfaces for bacteria to hide, they can lead to chronic bad breath or even decay of surrounding teeth. More reputable piercing professionals will offer post-procedure care tips, but be sure to consult with one of our cosmetic dentists, like Dr. Caroline Mujica or Dr. Divya Bhargava, who will help you decide on a treatment to restore the tooth.

What to Do if You Notice Other Oral Issues

If you suspect you may have an infection, decay, or chronic bad breath due to your piercing or dental hygiene routine, don’t be afraid to reach out! Our professionals at Dental Partners of Boston include both general dentists and a cosmetic dentist team ready to customize your dental care, develop a treatment plan, and make dental hygiene product recommendations that will help you with your dental accessory and stay orally healthy.

Consider Removable Accessories

Before taking the plunge and getting a permanent or semi-permanent oral piercing procedure done, look into removable/temporary versions first. Items like removable “grills” have far less potential for dental damage and can be cleaned more thoroughly between uses. Procedures like tooth piercing (a procedure that attempts to permanently glue gems or metal adornments to natural teeth) can affect enamel negatively over time and aren’t recommended.

Contact Us

If you’ve had an oral piercing that you no longer want to wear, or you need to repair damage from one with dental veneers, make an appointment with our caring team. We’ll discuss your options, including restorative cosmetic dentistry, and how to care for piercing sites as they naturally heal. Contact us today to get started!

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