Smilie Piercings 101

Today let’s talk about smilie piercings! These piercings grew in popularity thanks to the internet, and remain popular through social media. This is a piercing through the frenulum of the upper lip, the webbing that connects the lip to the gums. These piercings are hidden, and usually only visible when you smile, hence the name. While these piercings are cute, and the appeal is easy to understand, these piercings also carry some serious risks for your teeth and gums. Thanks to these risks I actually no longer offer these piercings. I do not feel that any piercing is worth potentially loosing your teeth and gums.

Proper Anatomy is Key

There are two major anatomical factors for a smilie piercing. The first, and easiest, is having enough webbing to pierce through. This is fortunately fairly common knowledge- there needs to be enough tissue for us to pierce! If this isn’t you are just piercing up into someones actual lip, and that is never going to heal. Fortunately this is well known and many clients can easily check themselves, and most clients come in with a good idea of if they have enough tissue for this piercing.

Lesser known, but often more important, is the angle of your teeth, sometimes called your bite. If your front teeth come down perfectly straight, that’s ideal. But if they come down angled inward or angled outward, the jewelry for this piercing is going to press and rub along your teeth and gums, which will cause damage. It’s just as important to ensure you have the correct tooth and bite anatomy as it is to ensure you have enough webbing. Even if a client has enough webbing to pierce, it is unethical to do this piercing if the angle of their teeth will cause tooth and gum damage. If you already have gum erosion on your front teeth, I also do not suggest getting this piercing as it will further the damage already there. And this damage is well documented by dentists and dental techs. Part of the bad reputation this piercing gets is from piercers who will do this on any client with enough webbing, regardless of their teeth and gum anatomy.

Personally, I prefer no one get these piercings given the very serious risks to your teeth and gums, but if you still choose to I hope this helps you stay as safe as realistically possible.