Tongue Piercing Update

I don't have any piercings, and I'm not inclined to get any. But even if I were, I'm thinking that my tongue would be pretty far down on my list of places to get pierced. And now, thanks to a recent report, it's even lower. The report notes an incident where an Italian teenager said the stabbing pains in her face felt like electrical shocks that lasted 10 to 30 seconds and struck 20 to 30 times a day.



Her doctors diagnosed trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve disorder sometimes called "suicide disease" because of the excruciating and dispiriting pain it causes. The doctors tried painkillers, then stronger medication, but in the end, a cure proved more simple: The young woman removed the metal stud from her pierced tongue.

Two days later her pain vanished. Hmmm...

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, this is the latest documentation of complications, some life-threatening, linked to tongue piercing. Other problems include tetanus, heart infections, brain abscess, chipped teeth and receding gums. One woman developed so much scar tissue that it resembled what she called a "second tongue."

In the newly reported case, the young Italian woman's mouth jewelry apparently irritated a nerve running along the jaw under her tongue. That nerve is connected to the trigeminal nerve, one of the largest in the head. Irritation of the trigeminal nerve can lead to the aforementioned trigeminal neuralgia, said Alana Greca, a registered nurse and director of patient support for the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association.

• I don't want a tongue piercing
• I don't want trigeminal neuralgia. I don't want trigeminal anything. And I never ever want to have to have any dealings with the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association.
  
• I DON'T want a brain abscess, even a little one.
• And I don't want this: