Risks and Complications in the Use of Oral Piercing - Clinical Cases Report

Abstract

Dental professionals must be prepared and up to date to support the patient when any negative effects resulting from the placement and use of an oral piercing are noticed. This effect can have consequences that directly or indirectly affect the patient's physical and psycho-emotional health, such as, for example, permanent plastic and aesthetic deformities. The dentist must also know how to deal with the freedom of thought and desire of those who choose the practice, justifying their own motives such as philosophical passions, prohibitive radicalisms and social/historical behaviors. Furthermore, the dentist must guide and monitor these patients in order to prevent unpleasant local and systemic consequences caused by the use of oral piercing, promoting the individual's health in an integrated way. With the clinical cases presented, it is important that dental professionals are prepared to treat patients when these undesirable consequences are diagnosed. However, the use of piercings is an individual option, which must be respected, and patient guidance must be provided as objectively as possible, to prevent negative consequences resulting from the use of the ornament. Therefore, professionals' concerns must be based not only on clarifying possible local damage, but also on systemic implications, improving the patient's general health status.