Posted on 12/13/2001 2:51:50 PM PST by blam
Tongue piercing causes brain abscess
14:41 13 December 01
Jeff Hecht
Parents now have another reason to frown on tongue piercing - a potentially fatal brain abscess suffered by a young woman in Connecticut.
The woman's tongue became sore and swollen two or three days after it was pierced, and she reported a foul-tasting discharge from the pierced region. The infection healed in a few days after she removed the stud from her tongue, but a month later she suffered severe headaches, fever, nausea and vomiting.
A scan at the Yale University hospital revealed the brain abscess, which physicians drained. She recovered after six weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatment.
"This sort of brain abscess is very serious," Richard Martinello of Yale's medical school told New Scientist. Modern medicine can kill the infecting bacteria, but he says "in the past, there was a very high mortality rate."
In the blood
Such brain abscesses are rare, and normally linked to sinus or ear infections. The patient showed no sign of sinus problems, and Martinello said the bacteria that cause the brain abscess "were those typically found in persons' mouths".
The blood commonly picks up some bacteria from infections, but normally the immune system wipes them out. In this case, he thinks the blood carried enough bacteria from the tongue infection to cause the brain abscess.
Infections at the sites of body piercings are relatively common, but this is the first brain abscess linked to any piercing. The tongue is particularly vulnerable to infections because the mouth is warm, moist and full of bacteria.
Martinello says it is important to realise that such infections have the potential to cause dangerous complications.
14:41 13 December 01
PLEASE, don't give these people any ideas...
Even so, that doesn't make it a good idea...
Nor does it make it a bad idea. Looks like its really a rather neutral idea, no matter how you personally feel.
PS. Please check out BME if you, against all evidence, have an open mind and are willing to learn about why people pierce their tongues, get tattoos, and have done since prehistoric times.
She was showing off her pierced tongue for the other kids the other day, and said something to me. I asked her if she'd be talking like a 3-year-old from now on, or if that would go away?
Haven't heard anything else about the tongue-piercing since.
Is this supposed to be some sort an argument? You see, most people would at least try to follow up this kind of statement with some sort of supporting facts. You, however, seem to think you can make some sort of blanket statement, and then have it accepted as gospel. It is argumentitive, and has no place in rational debate. It's similar to me saying, "Mac and Cheese is the best . . . PERIOD!" How, idiotic and inane does that sound? You want to dicuss, this, fine, but you better come with something better than.
I don't care if any of you don't have tongue piercings, and I would expect the same courtesy of assuming I have a right to make decisions for myself to be extended to me too.
yes, i am a newbie to this discussion group, and that's only because I joined specifically because of this discussion thread. I was appalled at the narrow-minded fascism which most people at least have the wisdom to keep hidden. I'm sure that all of you are intelligent people, so how about an intelligent discussion?
So you may not have a problem with people dyeing their hair, how then can you have a problem with someone getting a piercing? They are doing because they think it will look better, it makes them happy, and because they have a right to project their image as they wish - can't you see that hair colour, piercing, breast implants, cosmetic dentistry, tattoos etc are all part of the same spectrum?
People around here will not like your thinking outside of the "collective republican box". You will probably be subject to ad homenem attacks as well as terrible straw man arguments that you will have to again, and again, point out are NOT real arguments. If you can handle that, it will be nice to have you around.
Good luck.
--Boris
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