Dental Fads That Need to Go

We all know that fads come and go in our lives. Doc Martins? Scrunchies? Certain clothing items? We’ve all them and loved them, the dropped them so fast. Dentistry is no difference. We are constantly having new “findings” and “research” presented from social media, and patients will be asking about them in your operatory. We’ll break down a few current dental trends that your patients may have tried or will be asking you about.

DIY Braces

There are several ways that patients can perform an at home orthodontic treatment. One way is wrapping an elastic, string, or piece of floss around their two anterior teeth, 8 and 9, if they have a diastema. There are so many YouTube videos on this method. And it can work for a bit! The teeth will move, but will probably move back because there’s a space there for a reason. There’s also a high chance of bacteria being caught around the at home aid, causing inflection in the gingiva and bone. Another way is to make your own Invisalign trays with plastic from the craft store. You warm up the plastic beads, make a U shaped that’s a similar size to your teeth, and bite into the plastic when it’s not super hot. Then, before it fully sets, you’ll remove the tray and adjust the teeth that you want to move. And this works too! Not recommended however, because the plastic isn’t medical grade and probably it’s smart to be putting into your mouth during the day or night and constantly sucking on it.

Tooth Filing

You may have seen this on Tik Tok, but you can use a nile file to shape your teeth. Have 8 and 9 that are slightly different lengths? You can use a nail file from the drug store to make them shorter. Nail files and the files we use in the dental office are very similar (we usually use a smaller/less course grit however), and you can totally removal enamel with them. But, definitely not recommended since removal of the hard outer shell of the tooth makes it susceptible to sensitivity, decay, pain and more. Make sure you’re keeping an eye on the insial edges of your patients that are on social media (aka everyone). You never know who will be removing tooth structure for a quick cosmetic fix.

Tooth Gems

These have come and go over time, especially as celebraties like to try out new jewelry for the red carpet. These metal, diamond, or jeweled gems can be purchased anywhere (we actually bought ourselves a few different ones to try from Ali Express), and come with etch and bond to adhere it to the tooth. This definitely can be damaging to the tooth, since a patient with no real dental knowledge can be placing these. We’ve even seen some hair and nail salons adversing this service of them adhering a small decal to an anterior tooth.

What dental trends have you been seeing and what ones have your patients been asking out?