As is the case with most social media platforms, the rise of TikTok is something of a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it’s presented an opportunity for people to share stories that help people deal with their own lives’ anxieties and give us insight into situations that most of us will never experience. It’s also a place where a lot of people can make you laugh and introduce you to music you never knew you needed.
But on the other hand, it can give others a platform to engage in the most infuriating behavior we can imagine and spawn an unfortunate number of imitators.
And as we’re about to see with one worrying case, this can give way to trends that cross the line from annoying to dangerous.
In recent months, some TikTok users looking to become influencers have documented their quests to get more photogenic smiles.
As Insider reported , one particular variant of this sees them flying to other countries to undergo unnecessary dental procedures that they refer to as “veneers.”
As dentists who are also active on the platform have been quick to point out, however, the extreme results are more indictative of crown procedures than veneers.
As Detroit dentist Dr. Zainab Mackie explained in a video , the difference concerns how much of a tooth’s enamel is being shaved off.
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In the case of veneer operations, the tooth is mostly intact. In crown procedures, however, the teeth are ground town pegs such as in the case of the smiles we’ve seen here so far.
According to Mackie, crown procedures are typically reserved for patients who have an extreme number of cavities or outright broken teeth.
The reason for this is that the procedure carries significant risk for the integrity of the nerves at the center of teeth.
As a dentist from London named Dr. Shaadi Manouchehri explained, “Every time you prepare a tooth, you get closer to the nerve and you heat up the tooth.”
When this is done to the extremes that we see here, that can lead to serious nerve damage and further procedures to try to repair the damage done.
In Manouchehri’s words, “It’s not going to be long before you need a root canal treatment and the tooth ultimately needs to be removed.”
In a separate TikTok, Manouchehri outlined that unnecessary crown procedures like these can have severe financial and oral health consequences in the long run.
As she explained , both veneers and crowns need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. In the case of the TikTok users in their late teens who do this, she estimated that they’ll need to do this at least four or five times in their lives.
Not only would this routine get expensive, but Manouchehri said that it’s only physically possible for teeth to withstand this repetition so many times.
As as a result, she concluded that people who get crowns at young ages without needing them have the potential to ruin their teeth for the rest of their lives and require dentures by the age of 40.
h/t: Insider
