Aim: Evidence on the impact of oral piercings on periodontal conditions is scarce. Thus, the aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the influence of oral piercings on periodontal health.
Materials and methods: A systematic literature search was performed for studies published by 6 June 2023, using three electronic databases and a hand search. Clinical trials including ≥10 patients wearing ≥1 oral piercing and presenting data on probing pocket depths (PPDs) were considered. Primary outcomes were PPD, and secondary outcomes included clinical attachment loss (CAL), gingival recession, bleeding on probing (BOP), and plaque score (PI). A synthesis of results, using a vote-counting method, was applied.
Results: From 131 titles identified, eight studies, published between 2007 and 2022, were included. Out of these were six cross-sectional studies and two case series. A total of 236 lip piercings and 236 tongue piercings in overall 408 patients were analyzed. In patients with tongue piercings, teeth adjacent to the piercing showed increased PPD (3 of 5 studies), more CAL (3 of 4 studies), more gingival recessions (4 of 4 studies) and a higher BOP (2 of 3 studies) compared with control teeth. In patients with lip piercings, teeth adjacent to the piercing demonstrated more gingival recessions (3 of 4 studies) compared with control teeth. Time since piercing placement was associated with localized periodontal destruction in patients with tongue and/or lip piercings (4 of 7 studies).
Conclusions: The available evidence from eight studies suggests negative effects of tongue piercings on several periodontal health parameters of adjacent teeth, while gingival recessions were frequently detected in patients with lip piercings.
Keywords: gingival recession; lip piercing; oral piercing; periodontal diseases; periodontitis; tongue piercing.
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.