My sister has a perfectly round 14g hole at the intersection of her two front teeth, top and bottom. It's from sliding the post back and forth between her teeth when she wasn't paying attention. I've seen a lot of people do that, it's like twirling hair or something. Just a thing you do without realizing it.

Until you get a hole in your teeth.

(I have crowns for unrelated reasons. I don't think it was quite as expensive as anticipated. But, he's 19, he can worry about that himself)

...without even knowing about the tongue ring, the dentist called me in to show me where Chris's teeth were chipped.
You don't think the hole through his tongue may have tipped the dentist off?

Maaaan - messing with ones teeth at that age - he's sooo gonna regret it.

I had braces for sooo many years it wasn't even funny. I had those rubberbands going up and down and across in my mouth. There was even talk about those braces that go around your head! I didn't smile for ages. When they finally came off I loved my teeth so much and roughly a year later some guy kicks me down the street and I have half a front tooth chipped off. I'm still mad!

So this chip I keep fixing makes me feel bad about my formerly perfect teeth, and it ruins everything, bad dentists have chipped other teeth while trying to fix it, the plastic miscolors and falls out at least every two years. The older I get the more annoyed I get, dammit I had perfect teeth at one point in my life right around 17 and 18.

I'd never in my life put a ring in my mouth that would mess with it. I guess when you have to work hard (or rather be known as the dork and totally unkissable in what seems like forever) you appreciate your teeth more.

On the other hand he could easily trip over and knock all his teeth out. This way is more fun!

You might encourage Chris to visit a piercing place--there's a good chance that different jewelry (something softer and/or something smaller) will help the situation in the long run.