The patient with a pierced tongue

Patients with a pierced tongue are appearing with increasing frequency in our anaesthetic practice and much has been written in the literature over the past decade. Some patients are reluctant to remove their piercing when requested to do so. The literature suggests that it can take between 4 and 6 weeks to consolidate the tract, and patients often complain that removing piercings before this time leads to rapid healing due to the highly vascular nature of the tongue (Marenzi 2004). A telephone survey of our local body piercing establishments suggested that even an established tract can heal in a matter of a few hours. A new tract can certainly become functionally closed within an hour. We have recently seen two cases in our practice which highlighted interesting learning points.