Overview
The fear of intense pain during a tongue piercing procedure may make you shy away from receiving one. Ironically, the pain is minimal during the procedure, while you experience the most pain during the healing period. The healing period of a tongue piercing lasts roughly six to eight weeks. The first two weeks of the healing period is when you feel the most pain. After the initial two weeks, the pain lessens and you only feel mild discomfort.
Pre-Piercing
The amount of pain during the preparation of a tongue piercing is minimal. The mouth experiences a tingling or slight burn when rinsing with an antiseptic mouthwash. The piercer dries the tongue free of saliva with a piece of sterile gauze and you feel pressure on the tongue. You will feel pulling and additional pressure as the piercer feels the tongue for placement of muscles and pulls the tongue upward to check the anatomy on the underside of the tongue.
Piercing Procedure
The piercer marking the tongue with a sterile marker is painless. Placing the tongue in forceps causes mild discomfort and you feel pressure as the forceps close. If you have an extremely short tongue, the piercer pulling the tongue outside of the mouth may be mildly painful. While opening the mouth as wide as possible during the piercing, you may experience involuntary muscle spasms in the cheeks and drooling. The needle passing through the tongue is a slight pinch and the jewelry insertion is painless when using internally threaded jewelry. Externally threaded jewelry may cause pain when the threads pass through the new piercing channel.
Swelling
Swelling is normal for a healing tongue piercing. The largest amount of swelling occurs in the first two weeks of healing; some tongue piercings only swell for the first few days. To alleviate the swelling, allow ice to melt in the mouth, avoid alcoholic beverages or mouthwashes containing alcohol and take ibuprofen. The barbell inserted in the healing piercing is long to allow for swelling but follow advice from your piercer to eat slowly to avoid biting down on the large barbell, which could chip or crack a tooth.
Pain
You may feel that there is a problem with the tongue piercing on the first morning after the procedure, even though the pain experienced is normal. A pulsing or throbbing pain in the tongue is normal. Avoiding hot, crunchy or spicy foods lessens the pain along with ibuprofen taken for swelling. Oral sex and deep kissing are prohibited during the healing period to prevent ripping, tearing or bacterial infections. Ripping, tearing and bacterial infections cause intense pain in and around the tongue piercing. Changing the jewelry in the correct time period recommended by a professional piercer, usually two to four weeks, helps you avoid pain from damaged teeth and gums.
Healed Tongue Piercings
You will experience no pain while changing the jewelry in your healed tongue piercing. Wearing appropriate jewelry in the tongue piercing ensures that you will not experience an allergic reaction, irritation or infection. Purchasing jewelry from clothing stores, gas stations or novelty shops will result in complications in the piercing from low-quality jewelry. Professional piercers carry or will special order tongue jewelry in an array or colors, patterns and designs. The safest way to purchase and change the ring in a tongue is to visit a professional piercer.
