The Impact of Material on Microbiota in Association With Tongue and Lip Piercing

Biofilms on oral piercings may serve as a bacterial reservoir and lead to systemic bacteraemia or local transmission of periopathogenic microbiota. The investigators hypothesize that there are microbiological differences in bacterial samples collected from tongue /or lip piercings made of different materials. The investigators also hypothesize that the piercings carry the same characteristic bacteria as found in the piercing channels and that independently the biofilm on the tongue/adjacent teeth is similar to the other study locations. 85 subjects with tongue and 85 subjects with lip piercing will participate. Periodontal clinical parameters, traumata of hard tissues, and characteristics of the stud are evaluated. Sterile piercings of four different materials will be randomly allocated to the study subjects. After two weeks, microbiologic samples are collected and are processed by checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization methods.