Hundreds of YouTube videos of “worming” have been uploaded to YouTube in recent weeks. And Media in Japan are reporting a rise in the number of teens suffering from eye infections—including conjunctivitis, or pinkeye, and herpes—as a result, and doctors warn it can also lead to blindness.
“Nothing good can come of this,” Dr. David Granet, a San Diego ophthalmologist, told the Huffington Post.
“There are ridges on the tongue that can cause a corneal abrasion. And if a person hasn’t washed out their mouth, they might put acid from citrus products or spices into the eye.”
The “ocuolinctus” fetish, where lovestruck teenagers erotically graze their tongues across their partners cornea, is sweeping Japan and now making its way to foreign shores.
New Zealand optometrists are warning youths not to follow suit, as cases in the US have begun to surface, reports the New Zealand Herald.
Ian Finch, chairman of Visique New Zealand, has issued a warning: “Your eyes are a vital organ and it is essential that you care for them in order to ensure their health.”
“A human has more than 40,000 bacteria living on their tongue, so it’s certainly not something you want anywhere near your eyes, which are vulnerable to disease and damage,” he said.
One Japanese school reported a third of its 12-year-olds had engaged in `worming’, a practice teachers became aware of after realising the eye patches students were wearing in class were not a new fashion trend, but a bid to hide their conjunctivitis.
However, snopes.com has suggested that the so-called ‘craze’ may have been the result of a juicy bizarre news report that got a little out of control.
And if you really want to see it…
