Tongue splitting risks significant blood loss and nerve damage, warn surgeons

Dental and plastic surgeons have issued new advice for anyone who is considering, or already has, a tongue split or oral piercing. The surgeons also say it is better if people do not have these procedures at all.

In a joint statement, the Faculty of Dental Surgery (FDS) at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) and the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) warn that following a recent Court of Appeal ruling, body modification practitioners in England and Wales offering tongue splitting are now likely to be doing so illegally. The professional bodies are concerned that the legal status of tongue splitting in the rest of the United Kingdom remains unclear. There is also ambiguity around the use of some alternative methods of achieving a tongue split, for example using multiple piercings to achieve the same effect.

The FDS and BAPRAS warn that oral piercings such as tongue and lip piercings also carry a risk of adverse consequences such as inhalation and ingestion, tooth fracture, gum damage, infection, oral lesions, adverse reactions to local anaesthetic and swelling that can lead to breathing difficulties. Over half of tongue piercings and one in five lip piercings performed on young adults (age 16 to 24) are believed to result in complications.