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Proper tongue piercing aftercare is crucial to prevent infection and other complications. Care instructions include rinsing with an antiseptic mouthwash, managing swelling, and checking for a tight fit on the barbell. Follow-up visits and changing to a shorter barbell are also recommended.
Getting your tongue pierced is a personal decision, but it requires a proper understanding of tongue piercing aftercare to prevent infection and other difficulties. The best tongue piercing care tips vary depending on who you ask. Professional piercers recommend rinsing with an antiseptic mouthwash for at least seven days. Dentists and doctors recommend up to six weeks for the antiseptic rinse. To ensure the best results from any body modification piercing, carefully follow the piercing professional’s instructions, which will often include steps to reduce swelling, keep the piercing clean, make any necessary jewelry adjustments, and instructions for follow-up visits. up.
Tongue piercing care instructions typically focus primarily on cleaning and managing swelling. Immediately following a tongue piercing, the area will swell, often enough to disrupt normal speech and eating habits. Ice chips, cold water, and similar remedies will help reduce swelling within the first day or so after your piercing. Controlling swelling is important to prevent the ends of the barbell ball from breaking or loosening, which can lead to a lost piercing, excessive irritation, and possible infection.
Eating and drinking habits are recommended as tolerated in most of the literature on tongue piercing care. In an effort to prevent infection, after eating or drinking anything other than plain water, it is imperative to rinse with an antiseptic mouthwash. Most piercing professionals, as well as medical and dental professionals, recommend rinsing several, if not dozens, times a day to kill harmful bacteria. How long an individual should rinse is the only controversial issue among piercing professionals and doctors.
The minimum recommendations are to rinse with an antiseptic mouthwash as often as possible for seven days, with some recommendations continuing up to six weeks after the initial tongue piercing. People with a tongue piercing should be careful to use only those antiseptic mouthwash products recommended by their piercer or doctor. The use of topical antibacterial ointments, for example, is strongly discouraged as these products, while serving to kill harmful bacteria, are not recommended for puncture wounds.
Adjustments and follow-up care are also an important part of tongue piercing care. Checking the balls on both ends of the barbell for a tight fit twice a day is a common recommendation. Swelling in the first few days, along with talking, eating, and other movement, can loosen the ends of the ball on an oral piercing. The tight-fitting ball ends ensure that the piercing cannot shift or fall out, resulting in further irritation of the piercing site.
Once the swelling has subsided, usually within the first couple of weeks, most piercing professionals recommend a checkup to change the barbells. The initial barbells used in tongue piercing are longer to accommodate tissue swelling, but continuing to wear them after the risk of swelling has decreased can lead to cracked or chipped teeth. Therefore, switching to a shorter barbell is a common and sensible recommendation for tongue piercing care.
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