Guys, i know smoking is bad in the first place, but no one here has answered my question. Can i continue if i have a small tongue laceration? As in, will it cause an infection on my tongue or what?

I would say that you should probably think about seriously cutting down until the laceration has healed. Cigarette smoke is an irritant and anything that could potentially infect your cut should be seen as bad. I've found links to a few piercing sites which all say that you should cut down (but not stop) smoking until your piercing has healed. Since a piercing is basically an open wound in the mouth I would say that this advice holds up for you as well. http://www.infinitebody.com/aftercare/acoral.html [EDIT: I'm putting this here so that it doesn't get lost. Please people, I was answering someone's question. That person has said they found my answer useful. So I suggest that unless you ARE a smoker with a tongue laceration you resist the temptation to rate this answer negatively.] ----------------------------------------------- I'm sorry, but I do feel the need to respond to Bob. Bob, if the original question was "should I start/keep smoking" then your answer would be valid (if a little lacking in detail). Unfortunately it wasn't. The question didn't ask whether smoking is bad for you. Trust me smokers already know the answer to that! The very worse comment you can make to a smoker is "those are bad for you". We know! We're not uninformed. Your comment IS a personal opinion, and an unasked for one at that. I know about all the effects smoking can have on the body. So do all smokers. Let's face it you can't get away from it! I'm not blind to the risks but it's MY choice that I smoke, the same as the questioner. Who are you to tell us that what we are doing is wrong? I also implore you to not rate this answer down vindictively. I gave you "not useful" because your answer WAS "not useful", since it made no attempt to constructively answer the question, wheareas mine directly addresses it. EDIT: Thanks, Bob, you're only making yourself look bad. I agree that it is fact, but, as I said, how is it any of your business whether I or anyone else smoke? We all live in free societies. Smoking is not illegal. You're only showing yourself to be childish. The fact that you marked my answer down, not because it's not useful, but because you don't agree with smoking is proof of that. EDIT: And yet another religious person steps into the argument! How nice of you to join us Mr Answers101. I feel you may have missed the point slightly. You say that "smoking is not useful". Well you're probably right about that. However I feel I must remind you that the point of this site is not to rate answers based on your personal tastes but upon how useful you find them. Since you're clearly not a smoker and I'm guessing you don't have a tongue laceration how could you possibly find this answer useful or otherwise? I'm guessing that you're sore about the comment I left on your answer and I will remove that as a jesture of goodwill. However, this is not how this site works and I would advise you to stop giving me maliciously bad ratings.

this IS indeed a good question. i looked at a few oral piercing sites, and they seem to agree that smoking slows the healing process. their solutions are split between stopping completely and cutting back. so i think smoke as little as possible until you've healed. but no, you won't get an infection as a direct result of smoking. you may, however, be more likely to get an infection because the wound is open longer, and therefore open to infections longer.