Tongue splitting

Last updated
Person with a tongue bifurcation body modification. Tongue-split-cropped.jpg
Person with a tongue bifurcation body modification.
Video of someone moving a split tongue

Tongue bifurcation, splitting or forking, is a type of body modification in which the tongue is cut centrally from its tip to as far back as the underside base, forking the end.

Contents

Bifid tongue in humans may also be an unintended complication of tongue piercings [1] or a rare congenital malformation associated with maternal diabetes, [2] orofaciodigital syndrome 1, [3] Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome, Goldenhar syndrome, and Klippel–Feil syndrome. [4]

Practice

Deliberate tongue splitting is a cosmetic body modification procedure that results in a ‘lizard-like’ bifid tongue. [5] Tongue bifurcation has also been reported as an unintended complication of tongue piercing. [1]

According to Google Trends, search interest in tongue splitting peaked in 2004, and has the highest search interest in South America followed by the Post-Soviet States, then the Anglosphere.

Process

Tongue bifurcation may be done surgically using a scalpel, or cauterised with a laser. [6] It is performed by oral surgeons, plastic surgeons, or body modification practitioners, or done oneself, but only oral and plastic surgeons are licensed. Before splitting with any method, some choose to have a well-healed tongue piercing where the back end of the split is intended to be. This effectively prevents the tongue from healing forward from the back of the cut, which would result in a split that is not as deep as desired.

When using the scalpel method, the tongue is cut down the middle with a scalpel and each half is stitched or sutured along the cut edge. This helps prevent the sides from healing back to each other and also achieves a more rounded and natural look. In some cases the scalpel is heated to provide a cauterizing effect, limiting bleeding.

Cauterizing can be done with a cautery unit or an argon laser. Both burn the tongue in half which closes off blood vessels, preventing much bleeding. If an established tongue piercing is not used as the back end of the split with this method, the tongue has a higher tendency to heal and the procedure must be done again to achieve the depth desired. [7]

The tongue generally heals in 1–2 weeks, during which time the person may have difficulty with speech or their normal dietary habits. Splitting may be reversed surgically by removal of sutures, excision of healed tissue on edges, and re-suturing the tongue together. [8] [9] [10]

Once healed, muscle control of the individual sides can be gained with practice if the split is sufficiently deep. The two halves can be raised up and down opposite each other, spread apart from the other half which makes the split quite apparent and some objects can be grasped onto and held.

Bifid tongues may be concealed if desired by holding the two halves together. When the two sides are held together, it may appear as though there is only a deep crevice in the centre of the tongue.

Complications

Surgical tongue splitting may result in inflammation, bleeding (including hemorrhage [11] ), infection, and injury to nerves or arteries on the tongue. [12] [13] A bifurcated tongue may also perceptibly alter fricative production. [14] Resulting scar tissue may also affect speech. [15]

Motivation

Proponents of body modifications such as tongue bifurcation may feel that body modification leads to a sense of strength and empowerment, assists pair or group bonding, or emotional 'healing' from past trauma. [16] Proponents may simply like the appearance, considering it beautiful, enjoy the novelty or shock value, or believe it leads to increased sensation or enhancement when kissing. [15] Challenging oneself, rites of passage, connecting with or being in control of one's body, making a spiritual connection or testing the body's limits are also reasons given. Like all body modifications, it can be used to connect or identify with a specific group or to ward off those who would make quick undesired judgments based on appearance. [17]

Legality

The legality of tongue splitting varies greatly depending on the country and within those countries, individual states or territories. Some examples are given below, but do not encompass all the laws regarding this subject.

United States of America

Some branches of the U.S. military ban body modifications that detract from a professional military image and explicitly include tongue splitting or forking as examples. [18]

In 2003, Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to regulate tongue splitting, passing a law making it illegal to perform the procedure on another person, unless it is done by someone licensed to practice medicine. The law does not appear to prohibit performing the procedure on one's self. [19] Since then New York, Delaware, and Texas have enacted laws that either ban the practice, ban the procedure on minors without parental consent, or restrict it to being performed by only doctors and/or dentists. [20]

Australia

In 2009, the Australian state of Victoria enacted a ban on splitting the tongues of minors. [21]

United Kingdom

In 2017 Brendan McCarthy was charged in the United Kingdom for a number of body modifications including tongue splitting. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to causing grievous bodily harm with intent. [22]

Cases of body modification artists illegally possessing and injecting local anaesthetics for tongue bifurcation procedures have also been recorded in England. [23]

In March 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled tongue splitting to be illegal in England and Wales when performed by a body modification practitioner for cosmetic purposes. [23]

Notable cases

Dustin Allor, a 19-year-old body piercer in the U.S., split her tongue herself in 1996. Not having any reference of this being done before, she came up with the tie-off or fishing line method. In 1997 she was featured on the cover of Fakir Musafar's Body Play Magazine. [24]

A sideshow performer named Erik Sprague, known professionally as The Lizardman, had his tongue split on July 18, 1997. His procedure was performed by oral surgeon Dr. Lawrence Busino, using an argon laser, in what was the first truly professional tongue split. A new deeper split was done on October 3, 1997. This was the third modern tongue bifurcation and the first one done using a laser. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic surgery</span> Medical surgical specialty

Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction, or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. While reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct a part of the body or improve its functioning, cosmetic surgery aims to improve the appearance of it. A comprehensive definition of plastic surgery has never been established, because it has no distinct anatomical object and thus overlaps with practically all other surgical specialties. An essential feature of plastic surgery is that it involves the treatment of conditions that require or may require tissue relocation skills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uvula</span> Fleshy appendage that hangs from the back of the palate

The uvula, also known as the palatine uvula, is a conic projection from the back edge of the middle of the soft palate, composed of connective tissue containing a number of racemose glands, and some muscular fibers. It also contains many serous glands, which produce thin saliva. It is only found in humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tongue piercing</span> Type of body piercing

A tongue piercing is a body piercing usually done directly through the center of the tongue. Since its decline in popularity around 2011, it has seen a recent upsurge making it now the second most popular piercing amongst young women aged 18-25 in 2019. It has become quite unpopular amongst men, although in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was more popular for men than women to get and associated with punk culture. Midline tongue piercings, or one hole through the center of the tongue is the most common way to have the tongue pierced.

A transscrotal piercing is a body piercing that travels through the scrotum from front to back, or from side to side. It is a high risk procedure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhytidectomy</span> Type of cosmetic surgery

A facelift, technically known as a rhytidectomy, is a type of cosmetic surgery procedure used to give a more youthful facial appearance. There are multiple surgical techniques and exercise routines. Surgery usually involves the removal of excess facial skin, with or without the tightening of underlying tissues, and the redraping of the skin on the patient's face and neck. Exercise routines tone underlying facial muscles without surgery. Surgical facelifts are effectively combined with eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) and other facial procedures and are typically performed under general anesthesia or deep twilight sleep.

Scalpelling is a body art procedure similar to body piercing for the creation of decorative perforations through the skin and other body tissue, and is most commonly used as a replacement for or enhancement of ear piercing. Whereas piercing is typically performed with a hollow piercing needle or an ear piercing instrument, scalpelling is performed by using a scalpel to cut a slit into the skin. Unlike dermal punching, no flesh is removed. The technique can immediately produce holes with a larger diameter than can be achieved by piercing. This is a more rapid means of accommodating larger gauge jewellery than stretching, a technique whereby piercings are enlarged by inserting gradually larger jewellery. Scalpelling is performed to quickly achieve a large-gauge piercing, when scar tissue is preventing further stretching, if tissue has thinned to the point where further stretching could cause it to break, or to combine two closely placed piercings into one hole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blepharoplasty</span> Surgical modification of the eyelids

Blepharoplasty is the plastic surgery operation for correcting defects, deformities, and disfigurations of the eyelids; and for aesthetically modifying the eye region of the face. With the excision and the removal, or the repositioning of excess tissues, such as skin and adipocyte fat, and the reinforcement of the corresponding muscle and tendon tissues, the blepharoplasty procedure resolves functional and cosmetic problems of the periorbita, which is the area from the eyebrow to the upper portion of the cheek. The procedure is more common among women, who accounted for approximately 85% of blepharoplasty procedures in 2014 in the US and 88% of such procedures in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labiaplasty</span> Plastic surgery procedure for altering the labia minora

Labiaplasty is a plastic surgery procedure for creating or altering the labia minora and the labia majora, the folds of skin of the human vulva. It is a type of vulvoplasty. There are two main categories of women seeking cosmetic genital surgery: those with congenital conditions such as intersex, and those with no underlying condition who experience physical discomfort or wish to alter the appearance of their vulvas because they believe they do not fall within a normal range.

Gingivectomy is a dental procedure in which a dentist or oral surgeon cuts away part of the gums in the mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frenectomy</span> Surgical removal of a frenulum

A frenectomy is the removal of a frenulum, a small fold of tissue that prevents an organ in the body from moving too far. It can refer to frenula in several places on the human body. It is related to frenuloplasty, a surgical alteration in a frenulum. Done mostly for orthodontic purposes, a frenectomy is either performed inside the middle of the upper lip, which is called labial frenectomy, or under the tongue, called lingual frenectomy. Frenectomy is a very common dental procedure that is performed on infants, children, and adults. A similar procedure frenulotomy is where a tight frenulum may be relieved by making an incision in the tight tissue.

Dental pertains to the teeth, including dentistry. Topics related to the dentistry, the human mouth and teeth include:

A gum lift is a cosmetic dental procedure that raises and sculpts the gum line. This procedure involves reshaping the tissue and/or underlying bones to create the appearance of longer or symmetrical teeth, thereby making the smile more aesthetically pleasing. This procedure is typically done to reduce excessively gummy smiles or to balance out an asymmetrical gum line. The procedure, also known as crown-lengthening, has historically been used to treat gum disease. It is only within the past three to five years that dentists have commonly used this procedure for aesthetic purposes. The practice of cosmetic gum lifts was first developed in the late 1980s, but there were few oral surgeons and dental practitioners available to perform the procedures. Gum lifts can also include bone shaping to reduce the prominence of the upper jaw and even out the tooth and gum ratio. This method provides permanent results, while simple gum contouring may result in relapse or regrowth of the gingiva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coronectomy</span> Removal of the crown of a tooth

When extracting lower wisdom teeth, coronectomy is a treatment option involving removing the crown of the lower wisdom tooth, whilst keeping the roots in place in healthy patients. This option is given to patients as an alternative to extraction when the wisdom teeth are in close association with the inferior alveolar nerve, and so used to prevent damage to the nerve which may occur during extraction.

Liposuction, or simply lipo, is a type of fat-removal procedure used in plastic surgery. Evidence does not support an effect on weight beyond a couple of months and does not appear to affect obesity-related problems. In the United States, liposuction is the most common cosmetic surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body piercing</span> Form of body modification

Body piercing, which is a form of body modification, is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which jewelry may be worn, or where an implant could be inserted. The word piercing can refer to the act or practice of body piercing, or to an opening in the body created by this act or practice. It can also, by metonymy, refer to the resulting decoration, or to the decorative jewelry used. Piercing implants alter the body and/or skin profile and appearance. Although the history of body piercing is obscured by popular misinformation and by a lack of scholarly reference, ample evidence exists to document that it has been practiced in various forms by multiple sexes since ancient times throughout the world. Body piercing can be performed on people of all ages, although most minors are only permitted to have earlobe piercings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dental trauma</span> Medical condition

Dental trauma refers to trauma (injury) to the teeth and/or periodontium, and nearby soft tissues such as the lips, tongue, etc. The study of dental trauma is called dental traumatology.

In surgery, a surgical incision is a cut made through the skin and soft tissue to facilitate an operation or procedure. Often, multiple incisions are possible for an operation. In general, a surgical incision is made as small and unobtrusive as possible to facilitate safe and timely operating conditions.

Oral manifestations of systematic disease are signs and symptoms of disease occurring elsewhere in the body detected in the oral cavity and oral secretions. High blood sugar can be detected by sampling saliva. Saliva sampling may be a non-invasive way to detect changes in the gut microbiome and changes in systemic disease. Another example is tertiary syphilis, where changes to teeth can occur. Syphilis infection can be associated with longitudinal furrows of the tongue.

In the dental specialty of endodontics, periradicular surgery is surgery to the external root surface. Examples of periradicular surgery include apicoectomy, root resection, repair of root perforation or resorption defects, removal of broken fragments of the tooth or a filling material, and exploratory surgery to look for root fractures.

Tooth transplantation is mainly divided into two types:

References

  1. 1 2 Fleming, P., Flood, T. Bifid tongue — a complication of tongue piercing. Br Dent J 198, 265–266 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4812117
  2. ↑ James, A. W., Culver, K., Hall, B., & Golabi, M. (2007). Bifid tongue: A rare feature associated with infants of diabetic mother syndrome. American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part A, 143(17), 2035–2039. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.a.31877
  3. ↑ Poretti, Andrea; Vitiello, Giuseppina; Hennekam, Raoul CM; Arrigoni, Filippo; Bertini, Enrico; Borgatti, Renato; Brancati, Francesco; D'Arrigo, Stefano; Faravelli, Francesca (2012-01-11). "Delineation and Diagnostic Criteria of Oral-Facial-Digital Syndrome Type VI". Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases. 7: 4. doi:10.1186/1750-1172-7-4. ISSN 1750-1172. PMC 3313869. PMID 22236771.
  4. ↑ Siddiqua, A., Abubaker, P., Saraswati, F. and Thakur, N., 2015. Bifid tongue: Differential diagnosis and a case report. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Medicine, and Pathology, 27(5), pp.686–689.
  5. ↑ Scully, C. Split tongue. British Dental Journal 198, 607 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4812372
  6. ↑ "This is everything you need to know about tongue splitting". The Independent. August 3, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Tongue Splitting". Ishiboo.com. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  8. ↑ Fleming, P., Flood, T. Bifid tongue — a complication of tongue piercing. Br Dent J 198, 265–266 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4812117
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 18, 2005. Retrieved January 12, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ↑ Archived June 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ "SAEM Clinical Image Series: The Hemorrhaging Bifurcated Tongue". December 21, 2020.
  12. ↑ Bressmann T. (2004). Self-inflicted cosmetic tongue split: a case report. Journal (Canadian Dental Association), 70(3), 156–157.
  13. ↑ Aga, F., Harris, R. Cosmetic tongue split. Br Dent J 214, 275 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2013.284
  14. ↑ Budd, Alyson; Schellenberg, Murray; Gick, Bryan (2017). "Effects of cosmetic tongue bifurcation on English fricative production". Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 31 (4). Taylor and Francis Online: 283–292. doi:10.1080/02699206.2016.1255782. PMID   27858466. S2CID   29669546.
  15. 1 2 "Speaking With Forked Tongue Turns Trendy". Los Angeles Times. May 18, 2003.
  16. ↑ Carolyn D. Keagy (2020) A Qualitative Examination of Post-Traumatic Growth in Multiply Body Modified Adults, Deviant Behavior, 41:5, 562–573, DOI: 10.1080/01639625.2019.1574479
  17. ↑ "Tongue Splitting More Than Budding Controversy on". Ethicsdaily.com. 2003-05-29. Archived from the original on 2015-03-08. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  18. ↑ "Military Law Review" (PDF). Loc.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  19. ↑ "720 ILCS 5/12-10.2". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  20. ↑ "Lawcrawler – FindLaw". Lawcrawler.findlaw.com. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  21. ↑ Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ↑ "Tattooist Dr Evil admits GBH for splitting tongue and cutting off ear and nipple". Metro. 2019-02-12. Retrieved 2019-02-16.
  23. 1 2 "Tongue splitting: Surgeons warn of serious health risks". BBC News. August 3, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Body Play Issue Number 16". Bodyplay.com. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  25. ↑ [ dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.