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
It amazes me that you automatically assume she wants if for some sexual reason. I will stack my daughter's moral and religious standards against 99% of all teenagers.
It must be great to automatically know one's motive for having a tonque ring. How do you do it? Will you give me the winning numbers for this weeks lottery? It's 17 million this week in Virginia.
You're too modest. I'd make that number nearer to 100%.
I've always enjoyed FR, but snap judgments made about people are among the most tiresome comments seen on this board.
Main Entry: mu·ti·late
Pronunciation: 'myü-t&l-"At
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -lat·ed; -lat·ing
Etymology: Latin mutilatus, past participle of mutilare, from mutilus truncated, maimed
Date: 1534
1 : to cut up or alter radically so as to make imperfect
2 : to cut off or permanently destroy a limb or essential part of : CRIPPLE
synonym see MAIM
- mu·ti·la·tion /"myü-t&l-'A-sh&n/ noun
- mu·ti·la·tor /'myü-t&l-"A-t&r/ noun
I will go out on a limb and assume your moral compass is the Word of God, the Bible. This is great. As moral compasses go there is none better. However, you nor any other Christian can prove the existance of God in any real objective manner, and if there is no God, then the Bible is nothing much more than babarian fairy tales and myth. Almost every Christian I know does not believe or have faith in a vaccum, but can recount numerous subjective experiences that, at least in their minds, give them their own individual proof... these experiences are subjective and also prove nothing in the objective.
Whether or not I'm Catholic has little to do with the argument, in my opinion. I had no intention of trying to prove the existance of God to you because I am well aware that there is nothing physical I could offer that you would accept. I will say [since you brought it up] that not everything in this world can be viewed in materialistic terms. God reveals himself through what is known as an "illumination of conscience," whereby you see yourself as God sees you.
Regardless, it is crazy to mutilate yourself by sticking a metal spike through your tongue to achieve sexual pleasure.
It is if piercing involves sticking a big metal spike through it. I realize since Clinton redefined the word IS things have been a litle crazy...however, websters is still pretty reliable.
I said is a nose-job (you know, rhinoplasty) mutilation? Bonehead.... Don't change my words to make a point.
Is it?
What about circumcision?
I would say that, yes, piercing is a form of self mutilation. However, the craziness of that can only be based on one's opinion.
My point basically was because we cannot prove any sort of objective morality in all cases, then those cases that are brought into moral question, that do no directly affect others, should be left up to the individual conscience.
I'll answer your question, although it still doesn't make sticking a metal spike through your tongue anything less than mutilation.
I would say that plastic surgery that alters your body radically is a form of mutilation, although if a person wants to do so I won't stop them. The definition in webster's explained it well, I thought.
I don't believe circumcision is mutilation because all one is doing is cutting off foreskin. I don't see how that resembles the definition I provided.
I never said I was going to take away your right to pierce your tongue. I said that it is crazy [in a concrete moral sense] to mutilate yourself. I don't go in for subjectiveness. :)
Hahahaha, yep, that foreskin will grow right back!
Not part of the organ? You wouldn't say that if you caught one in your zipper!
I'm not commenting on whether circumcision is right or wrong, but it is certainly an example of societally approved (and God-ordered for Jews) body modification.
Maybe all body modification isn't morally wrong?
Even if circumcision is mutilation, that doesn't make sticking a metal spike through your tongue any less of mutilation. Insane behavior!
Just as well. Enough about that....
Even if circumcision is mutilation, that doesn't make sticking a metal spike through your tongue any less of mutilation.
Would God ask people to mutilate themselves?
Do you see my point?--that maybe not all body modification is evil?
And I'm stickin to my foresk-...**
Um.... Oops... Oh, nevermind.
He never considered sexually satisfying any man. I just spoke with him about this thread and asked what the consensus was among his peers. It is done because it is a TREND ( which ,BTW, is fading slowly among HS kids ). It is the "in" thing to do. My SIL has her tongue pierced. I asked her if this "sex" reason was true. She said no. She liked the way it looked on her. My nephews definately disagree with the idea that it is done to sexually satisfy a man. "It's cool" was their response.
I have allowed my son to dye his hair, get his ear pierced, and dress the way he feels comfortable ( yes, he wears the loose clothing but not so loose that his pants fall to his knee. He is tasteful ) My son is a very respectable kid. He is gifted in his sport and other athletics. He is an "A" student. He is in the National Honor Society and in Who's Who among American HS Students. He is very active in our church as he is a youth leader and a "Big Brother" to two smaller boys in our community. IOW, he is NOT brain damaged as some here have stated about kids who do this.
I would not have objected if he had decided to pierce his tongue. I feel that he made a competent decision based upon his weighing the pros and the cons of having it done. THAT is what matters to me the most. I would rather he have holes in his ear and tongue rather than in his thought processes and heart.
How many here have tatoos? How many here were hippies when it was the "IN" thing to be? How many here went astray from the norms that your parents set forth for you in regards to dress, music, etc? how many here were ever teens? I would dare venture that the majority of us all follwed some fad or another at one point in our youth.
As opposed to circumcision or shaving your beard, sticking that spike through your tongue can have some major side effects. Even if you have the piercing done by formally trained professional piercers who adhere to the strict standards set by the Association of Professional Piercers.
Your tongue becomes swollen and painful for a good nine days after it's pierced [and no..I have no idea how long it hurts after circumcision].
And what about teeth that get chipped or broken from biting down on the spike in the mouth, as well as numerous infections around the piercing sites?
You can also get blood poisoning from impure metals, allergies, or an increased saliva flow that can result in a permanent drool!
An excess of bacteria on the tongue could cause an underlying infection in the bloodstream. A pierced tongue can swell so much that it could obstruct the airway. Or the ball that holds the barbell in the tongue can become loose and be inhaled into the lung. There are very specialized nerves that bring taste to the anterior (front) third of the tongue that can be damaged, so you can affect your taste.
You want to risk suffering that just for oral sex??? I swear..I am soooo out of the loop.
Sounds like you are the voice of experience...guess your tongue must be pierced to be so sure....
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