It used to be that the only alterations that were made to your teeth were necessary ones. Before the latest trends in dental modification came along, people got their cavities filled, their cracked teeth fixed and maybe they got a bridge, but we never dreamed we’d be seeing things like jewels, grills and tattoos on teeth. In this month’s blog we take a look at some of the strangest trends we’ve seen, and by the way, we don’t condone any of these practices at Beaverton Tendercare Dental.
Teeth Tattoos or Tattooths
Plenty of people have tattoos on their skin these days, but tattooing your teeth? Some dentists have been offering services that place a small painting or tattoo on crowns, bridges or implants. The designs we’ve seen range from everything to sports logos to presidents. After all the patients we see that want to get their teeth whiter, it seems very bizarre that people would purposely stain their teeth like this.
Tooth Jewelry
We think beautiful, white teeth are flashy enough without adding a thing, but it is now possible to glue crystals and gold and silver jewelry to your teeth. Some companies offer the jewelry to order online with the intention of your dentist applying the jewel, while other dentists are performing the procedure with their own gems. According to those that love the trend, the gem will fall off on its own without damaging the enamel underneath. We’re not so sure that would be the case.
Tooth Reshaping
We’re not sure why anyone would want to have pointy fangs like a vampire, but filing your teeth down is never a good idea. Doing something like this exposes enamel, making the tooth more sensitive to temperature, as well as making it more prone to breakage. In addition, like most trends, this too will pass and restoring your teeth to their previous shape could be costly.
Creating crooked teeth
This trend is really strange considering the amount of time (and pain) that goes in to making teeth straight with braces. In Japan, people are using prosthetic teeth that add the appearance of crooked teeth. In Western countries, crooked teeth are seen as imperfections. In Japan, a snaggletooth is considered cute.
Have you seen any weird dental trends you have a hard time believing are real? Tell us about them in the comment section below. If you’ve made the mistake of getting any of the above modifications, contact us to help you get your smile back to its original, untouched beauty.