Lightning port retention wings broke, is it a problem

My son came to me this morning saying that my (his) iPad won't plug in. I tried the lighting cable and it wouldn't go in the port at all. Expecting lint I used a toothpick to clean it out. It looked clean but knowing that it can get jammed in there I cleaned all around, but not that hard. Well not long into the process these 2 metal pieces flew out. The best I can figure it's part of the mechanism that go into the retention divots on the cable. Something like this from an iPhone 5 teardown.

The cable fits now, charges, and actually holds in the port just fine.

Here is a picture of the actual metal pieces.

Does anyone know if this is used in grounding for the cable (pinout lists pin 1 as the ground so I don't think so) and if it's ok to keep using? Should I have someone at the Apple Store look at it?

Thanks