FAQ
It hurts?
It only hurts to do anesthesia, but it only lasts half a minute. But after the entire procedure you will not feel anything. The anesthesia wears off 1.5-2 hours after administration, and the tongue will hurt for several hours. It will be painful to speak and sometimes you will produce too much saliva. It is painful to remove the sutures, but the process takes from two to ten minutes. After this, the pain decreases to almost zero.
How long does it take for a split to heal?
Complete healing takes 2-3 months. The stitches are removed after 5-7 days.
Is it true that the halves of the tongue can then grow together again?
On average, a split grows together by 10-30%, rarely more. There are preventative gymnastics: you just need to move the halves of your tongue apart. This will reduce the likelihood of strong split fusion.
How soon can I return to work?
It is better to talk as little as possible for the first 3-4 days. In general, the pain will not be severe after 2-3 days, but some people stay at home for 5-6 days. Diction will return to an acceptable level in a week or a week and a half.
What are the dangers and contraindications?
Relative contraindications - diabetes, anemia, poor blood clotting, infectious diseases. In such cases, healing will take longer. Absolute contraindication: the vessels under the tongue are not parallel, but cross the midline.
Will it be possible to stitch the tongue when I get tired of the split?
Can. But, most likely, you will get so used to it that the desire to part with them will pass by itself. In addition, after suturing the tongue, a dense scar will remain inside, which can significantly reduce the flexibility of the tongue.
Doesn't it bother you to eat?
At first it is difficult to eat and talk, since the tongue swells greatly and occupies almost the entire mouth, and the teeth press on the sides. When the swelling subsides (which is 4-6 days), it becomes easier. But for the first two weeks there may be a feeling that the tip of the tongue is being bitten.
How to move the halves?
You can only move two halves in one direction (up and down). Over time this will become easier and easier. To move them relative to each other, you need to move them towards each other, then one will jump up, and the other down. That's the whole trick.
How to brush your teeth?
Carefully. If you feel pain or burning, it is better to simply rinse your mouth.
What to do?
Day 0:
10-30 minutes after the procedure, the anesthesia will wear off and it will become painful. The best thing to do is go home and go to bed. If pain interferes with sleep (and life), do not hesitate to take Solpadeine or Nalgesin.
Day 1-6:
The next morning the tongue will completely swell. If it hurts a lot, we take a painkiller. We eat what we can. We relieve swelling with ice-cold drinks: water or herbal tea is better. After any meal, rinse your mouth.
What is normal: white fabric at the seam. This is new skin that grows from the cut. Teeth marks on the sides of the halves are also normal. The swelling is just very strong, and in the morning a dent from the teeth may form. Plaque on the tongue is usually formed due to the microflora of the mouth disturbed by rinses, but as healing progresses, the microflora is restored and the plaque disappears.
Day 6-14:
As a rule, after removing the stitches on the 5-6th day, it immediately becomes much easier. You can eat normally, but you need to limit yourself to salty, hot and spicy foods. The tongue should no longer hurt or cause severe discomfort. You need to rinse your mouth, but less often (2-3 times a day), so as not to disturb the natural microflora of the oral cavity with the rinse.
Day 15-30:
If the care was correct in the previous two weeks, then by this time the tongue will almost heal, and you can begin to stretch. Otherwise, the tongue may grow together a little (or a lot), starting in the middle. You need to take the ends of your tongue with gauze napkins and slowly pull them in different directions. Essentially, this is the same stretch as splits. It is advisable to do this 2-3 times a day for a month to consolidate the result.
What not to do?
1. Do not touch the wound again. The less you disturb the wound, the faster it will heal.
2. Do not use peroxide, alcohol or other aggressive substances.
3. For at least one, and preferably two weeks, you will have to give up hot and spicy food and kisses. Do not forget that the oral cavity is the most unhygienic place in the human body.
4. Eliminate (or at least minimize) the consumption of alcohol, coffee, cigarettes and aspirin. All this dilates the blood vessels and increases bleeding, thereby prolonging the healing period.
5. Remember that modification is not healed by miracle cures, but by your body. Therefore, it is advisable to take doubly good care of hygiene (in this case, brush your teeth) and maintain immunity at a decent level (take vitamins, get enough sleep, drink a lot of clean water and exercise).
Day 31 and beyond:
Is it normal
Q. After the anesthesia has worn off, I feel swelling and cannot speak clearly.
A. This is normal for the first couple of weeks. Therefore, we advise you to rest at home during this time.
Q. The swelling does not go away, speech is still impaired.
A. Swelling that lasts up to 7 days is normal. If it lasts longer, you need to contact the specialist and look for the cause (sometimes it is an allergy to food or mouthwash).
2. Tongue stretching can be started no earlier than three weeks after the procedure.
3. If the bleeding does not stop for more than a day, and the drug that increases blood clotting does not help, you need to go to a specialist.
4. If you come for a split from another city, you need to tell the master about it. Arrange so that you can stay with friends or in a hotel for 2-3 days. It is advisable to be accompanied on the way home: you may faint from the pain. You need to have painkiller tablets with you, which you should drink immediately after the procedure.
5. To prevent drooling from disturbing you, take a glass of Pepsi and fill it with ice and clean water. Drink the “cocktail” regularly and little by little: cold reduces swelling and reduces pain.
Now you're done, you speak two languages. You are awesome!
The portal Tattoo.Firmika.ru contains Moscow studios where you can do a tongue split. The visual tables contain prices for the procedure in different salons and provide reviews from real clients. Split, or tongue splitting, is one of the most spectacular and original methods of body modification, dating back to the Mayan civilization. And although initially the so-called “snake tongue” was perceived aggressively by society, more and more salons and piercing studios are performing this procedure.
What is important to know about splitting?
The process of cutting the tongue in two is an invasive procedure and must be performed under local anesthesia. During the session, the master divides the tongue along the central line - it is in this area that there are the least number of nerve fibers, blood vessels, and taste receptors. Split is often combined with frenuloplasty, which allows you to lengthen the tongue and increase its mobility. Sutures are placed at the incision sites, which can be removed after 5-7 days.
Modern piercing studios use a coagulator to reduce blood loss and speed up healing, so when choosing a salon, you first need to familiarize yourself with the equipment. It is better to do a tongue split in an establishment where they use disposable instruments. If the scalpels are reusable, the office must have a sterilizer in good condition. The instruments from the device are in special packages; they are taken out of the autoclave and opened in the presence of the patient.
How to choose a master and salon in Moscow?
The establishment itself must meet sanitary standards and the premises must be clean. The split itself should be carried out in a separate room. If you see violations of hygiene rules, it is better to leave the salon immediately. You should not stay with a master who cannot show certificates of his level of training.
Even before the session begins, the specialist must tell you in detail about the procedure, clarify the presence of contraindications, and also warn about possible complications. It is important to hear from the specialist the rules for caring for the tongue in order to speed up the healing of the wound; you should ask about exercises to prevent fusion.
Cost of split in city studios
The price for splitting is formed from several parameters: the cost of consumables, the work of the master, the location of the salon and the upcoming volume of manipulations. Many piercing studios purchase equipment and supplies abroad, so even within the same salon, prices can change due to currency fluctuations.
Cutting or splitting the tongue is one of the most original body modification options available today. Snake language is chosen by those people who strive to express themselves in an extraordinary way. During the procedure, the tip of the tongue is cut, then measures are taken to prevent fusion from starting. As a result, it simply bifurcates, after which it can only be restored to its original appearance through a repeat operation.
Currently, the procedure of cutting the tip of the tongue is chosen mainly by representatives of various subcultures - emo, goths, punks, metalheads, freaks. The purpose of this procedure is to decorate the body and express oneself, just like with piercings or tattoos. Only the bravest young people decide to undergo such an operation. But it is important to understand all the risks and consequences, as well as the presence of contraindications to its implementation.
To make yourself a forked tongue, it is very important to contact only trusted professionals who have all the conditions for carrying out the operation, experience and good reviews. Ideally, the master should have a medical education. The procedure itself is simple, but every piercer cannot do it. When choosing a specialist, you need to pay attention to the following criteria:
You should not risk your health and contact dubious people without a certificate offering such services. If this is not a salon, but a rented apartment, without appropriate methods for disinfecting instruments, it is better to abandon the idea of cutting the tongue.
Risks and contraindications
Regardless of who makes the cut, a surgeon or a master in a salon, if a person decides to undergo the procedure, he should be aware of the possible risks and contraindications, which include:
- Allergic reaction or individual intolerance to anesthesia. Before the split, the patient is given local anesthesia. The person must be aware and give their agreement in writing.
- Blood loss. The tongue is supplied with a huge number of blood vessels, so during a split there is a risk of large blood loss. To minimize this danger, it is recommended that this procedure be carried out in a medical facility.
- Nerve dissection. This is possible with deep bifurcation of the organ.
The main contraindications to making a snake tongue on a person include:
- minor age;
- too low pain threshold;
- poor blood clotting;
- period of bearing a child;
- individual contraindications that require specialist consultation.
Tongue care after surgery
After the procedure of cutting the tip of the tongue, the halves may grow together during the first few months, and suppuration may begin, so proper care is mandatory. Thanks to proper care, you can minimize unwanted consequences in the form of suppuration. The most unpleasant thing is the first day after the incision. Doctors usually recommend staying at home, since at first there will be an increased production of salivary fluid. And it won’t be easy to spit it out, because the tongue swells and hurts.
After the operation, for the first two to three weeks you will need to wear a homeostatic tube, which is installed between the separated halves. It will need to be changed after meals, at least four times a day. If any drugs are used to numb an organ or to disinfect it, it is important to consult a doctor first. A split master cannot give such recommendations. For the entire period of healing of the incision, alcohol and smoking are completely excluded from the diet.
Consequences of the split
It is also important to understand the consequences before making yourself a snake tongue:
- After the tip of the muscular organ is cut with a scalpel, it can only be returned to its original state through a repeated, expensive and painful operation.
- Diction will change. The person will begin to lisp during a conversation. You will also constantly want to spit out saliva.
- After surgery, it will be painful to talk and eat for several weeks. Only after a few months the pain will subside a little.
- If the work is done poorly, unprofessionally, in makeshift conditions, suppuration may begin. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out such procedures only in a medical institution; the salon must have the appropriate license.
Each person decides for himself whether he needs to express himself in this way. If this method is chosen, risks, consequences and contraindications must be taken into account.
It is extremely rare that a cleft tongue may be an anomaly of its development. Cleavage can be complete (its two halves are completely separated) and incomplete (partial fusion). Double tongue in early childhood is eliminated with the help of plastic surgery.
Many people think that the forked tongue of a snake looks very creepy, but few people have thought about its purpose. Every creation has its purpose. Over thousands of years, there have been many theories explaining the forked tongue of snakes. Aristotle reasoned that it was necessary to double the animal's sense of taste.
Italian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna thought that the snake's double tongue was needed to clear dirt from the nose. Some 17th-century authors claimed that snakes use their tongues as stings. The myth that a snake can bite using its tongue is common even today. But none of these hypotheses are plausible.
Most animals use their tongues to sample food, bathe, and capture or manipulate their prey. Some, including humans, use it to produce sounds. Snakes, on the other hand, do not use their tongues for any of the above purposes. Over the past 20 years of work, Kurt Schwenk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, has determined that the best description for the purpose of a snake's tongue is "smell."
sniffing tongue
Snakes use their tongues to collect chemicals from the air and ground. The tongue itself has no taste or smell receptors. Instead, these receptors are found in the vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ), which is located at the top of the mouth. Once inside the Jacobson's organ, the chemicals cause various electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain.
3D Smell
The snake's forked tongue can collect scent information in two places at once. The tips of the tongue can cover a distance twice the size of the head. This is very important because it allows them to detect more chemicals in the environment and gives the animal a sense of direction, in other words, snakes use their tongue to pick up smells in three dimensions. For example, owls use their asymmetrical ears to detect sound in three-dimensional space.
Splitting (or cutting) the tongue is one of the most original methods of body modification in the last fifteen years. Back in 2002, “snake tongue” was aggressively perceived by society; after almost a decade and a half, the situation has changed radically, and now more and more salons are offering the “split” service, as the demand for it is growing.
Tongue cutting has a thousand-year history and goes back to the Mayan civilization. The high priests were obliged to make a forked tongue (sometimes it was divided into 3-4 parts), which was a kind of mark.
Several hundred years later, the ritual of splitting the tongue was adopted by the teachings of “yoga”. The ancient minions of this teaching believed that a forked and elongated tongue would help them perform special exercises that would bring its owner closer to the awareness of existence and going beyond the limits of life. Many Indian deities had just such a language. In the Christian religion, it was believed that only the servants of Satan have a forked tongue.
Nowadays, split is chosen by more and more representatives of different subcultures, from dark goths and emo, to punks, metalheads and freaks. The purpose of the split, like many other body decorations (piercings, tunnels, tattoos) is personal expression. But since you won’t surprise anyone with an earring in your ear or a tattoo on your arm, and it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd in this way, brave young people decide to undergo such an operation.
How to choose a master for a split
In theory, the procedure for splitting the tongue is quite simple. However, this does not mean that it can be done by a second master who knows how to hold a scalp in his hands. When choosing a master for a split, rely on the following criteria:
- The level of professionalism is primarily indicated by the presence of a training certificate. Master courses are held in Moscow, where they can issue it;
- instruments for the procedure must be disposable and opened directly in front of you. Otherwise, ask the specialist about how to process a scalpel, or leave the salon;
- ask the master to present a portfolio of his work and, if possible, talk to his former clients in advance and read reviews. If you are satisfied with everything, feel free to make an appointment.
Risks and contraindications
Regardless of whether your tongue is cut by a surgeon or a specialist in a salon, if you decide to undergo the procedure, you should be aware of the possible risks. They are as follows:
- Allergy or personal intolerance to anesthesia. Immediately before the split, the patient is given local anesthesia. The master is obliged to provide his client with papers about possible secondary risks.
- Blood loss. Due to the fact that there are a huge number of blood vessels in the box, if control over the procedure is lost, a lot of blood can be lost. If you make a tongue incision in a medical facility, then this likelihood is minimized.
- Incision of nerves or tonsils. This is only possible with a deep bifurcation of the tongue. If this happens, emergency hospitalization will be required.
As for contraindications, this procedure is not recommended for persons under 18 years of age, with a low pain threshold and poor blood clotting. You should consult a specialist about individual contraindications.
How to care for your tongue after the procedure
The separated halves of the tongue may grow together or fester in the first few months, so during this time your tongue needs proper care. This is also relevant for preventing undesirable consequences in the form of suppuration.
The most unpleasant day is the first. Typically, experts advise locking yourself at home in complete peace, devoting yourself entirely to care. In the first days you will experience very profuse salivation. It will be quite difficult to spit due to the fact that the tongue will swell.
After the tongue is cut, for the first few weeks it will be necessary to wear a homeostatic sponge, which is placed between the cut parts. It must be changed at least 4 times a day and every time after meals.
Regarding medications, pain relievers and disinfectants consult ONLY a professional technician! Under no circumstances take on faith the advice of strangers on forums and social networks.
During the healing of the split, it is necessary to strictly exclude alcohol and cigarettes.
Consequences
If you decide to have your tongue cut, you should also be aware of all the possible consequences:
- Once your tongue is cut with a scalpel, the tongue will not be able to return to its original state unless you resort to special surgery. But here it is worth noting that it will be more painful and expensive.
- A forked tongue will affect your diction. You will begin to lisp when speaking and will most likely spit.
- The first time after the incision, it will not only be painful to talk, but also to eat. After a few months, the pain will go away.
- If the work is done poorly by a master or if you decide to cut your tongue (under no circumstances!), it can fester, so splitting can only be carried out in a medical institution (a good BM studio must have the appropriate license).
