Braces! This is one of the most common oral health procedures, with an average of 4 million Americans in braces at any given time- and many of them adults. Braces are an incredible orthodontic tool that allows us to realign, straighten out, and reposition teeth to improve people’s dental health and bite. It’s incredible, and for many braces are a life-changing process. But what about getting piercings if you have braces? With so many people currently in them, and the average process taking 1-2 years, that’s a long time to go without. Can you get oral piercings with braces? Let’s talk about it!
There are many different ways that braces can be done. The most common when we envision them are metal braces- consisting of brackets attached to your teeth, and various components of wires, bands, springs, elevators, and other tools used to help pull the teeth into alignment. Ceramic braces work much the same way, but with ceramic brackets as opposed to metal, allowing for them to be more subtle. Lingual braces go on the back sides of the teeth as opposed to the front, and can also be metal or ceramic. And clear aligners are a newer and popular method- these clear plastic trays are worn full-time except when eating or brushing and are swapped out every few weeks.
No matter what style of braces you have- I’m going to suggest not getting any oral piercings until you are fully done with the bracing process.
Oral piercings are prone to a fair amount of swelling when they are first pierced. This means we start them off with a slightly longer bar to allow for that swelling and healing. As they heal, we can downsize them shorter but this process takes a few months. During the period when the piercing is fresh and the jewelry is long, it’s very easy for it to catch on your brackets and potentially damage your braces. At best, it means a trip to the orthodontist to get things fixed, and maybe it won’t be super expensive (But I had had at least one client end up paying about 800$ out of pocket to fix their braces after an incident with a labret.). At worst, depending on what it damages and how, it can permanently affect your orthodontic process. One of my former clients was a dentist who told me about a client who knocked off an elevator without realizing it due to a tongue piercing, and a month later when she came in for her appointment her entire process was offset due to this. It took months (and a few thousand extra dollars) to get her back on track.
Even without longer-length jewelry, I have still seen clients simply take a bit of food the wrong way, or laugh a little large, and hook a piece of jewelry into their braces with disastrous results. Braces are already quite an expensive and involved process, and the risks of disrupting that due to piercings are severe. What’s worse, is many dental insurances and orthodontists won’t cover damage caused by piercings. Yes, that is correct. The client I mentioned above whose patient knocked off an elevator with a tongue piercing and disrupted the process? Because the piercing was a voluntary modification, her insurance did not cover this, and she had to pay full out-of-pocket costs to correct the issues from that accident. Which amounted to a few thousand dollars. It’s not the only time I’ve had someone tell me dental insurance has refused to cover damages or work needed due to piercings, and it’s becoming a more common policy as piercings become more popular.
Now some folks say well what about those clear aligners- those are probably fine right? And, yes these are much much lower risk than traditional braces and piercings. I simply won’t do oral piercings on a client with traditional braces. Clear aligners I’m willing to with a discussion of risk. New piercings are not ideal with them. You need to remove the aligners multiple times a day to eat and clean your teeth, and this presents an ideal opportunity to catch and snag new healing oral piercings. As someone who has worn clear aligners, I snagged them even on my healed oral piercings, I can’t imagine the discomfort and irritation with fresh ones. If you already have oral piercings and are planning to get these, it’s a little easier to manage. You may have to experiment with different sizing and styles of jewelry to figure out what is comfortable with the aligners.
I understand that piercings are cute and fun. And folks want to get and enjoy them. But having healthy teeth is also cute and fun, and perhaps a bit more important than some piercings. So please, finish your orthodontic processes and get your braces off first, before you get any oral piercings done.