Having a lip piercing is bad for the gums and can make them shrink back from the teeth, dentists warn. The longer people wear the piercing, the worse the recession is, researchers from Ohio State University in the US found - in a study of 58 young adults. The British Dental Association reported in its official journal in 2003 of the same risk with tongue piercings. Oral piercing - a trend growing in popularity - can cause life-threatening infections and reactions, it said. The Ohio team said that people with lip piercings were far more likely to have receding gums than those without piercings. Gum recession is associated with gum disease, which can cause the loss of teeth that are otherwise healthy. When the dental researchers examined the young people’s mouths they found average recession depth was more than double in those with piercings, compared with those without piercings. Dr Dimitris Tatakis and his team presented their findings at a conference of the International & American Association for Dental Research.
