PULP FRICTION
Do-it-yourself dentists on Tiktok regret working on their own teeth
With her phone set to record in one hand and a hot pink nail file in the other, Mia Dio was ready to act on the “crazy idea” that had popped into her head just hours earlier.
“I'm going to file my teeth down with a nail file because they are not perfect,” Dio, 19, said in a video shared to Tiktok in early June. “I have some ridges, and we're ballin' on a budget.”
Over the next 20 or so seconds, the Miami native chronicled portions of her foray into at-home dentistry, briefly showing footage of herself appearing to lightly drag a nail file back and forth across her two front teeth. “It's not perfect,” Dio said at the end of the video, providing a close-up look at her teeth. “But it is significantly better.”
The short clip, which has been watched more than 436,000 times, is one of the earliest documentations of what has become a trend on Tiktok in recent months — much to the dismay of dentists who warn that the risky self-modification could cause lasting damage to teeth. Another similar video on the social media platform has garnered more than 8.4 million views.
But now, Dio and at least one other Tiktok user who filmed a viral teeth-filing video are joining dentists in imploring people to leave their teeth alone.
“Don't be a DIY dentist,” Dio said. “I got lucky ... Everything was fine for me. It isn't necessarily going to be fine for the next person who tries.”
Aislinn Rendulic, 16, of Pennsylvania, said she learned the hard way.
“I'm about to do something really dumb,” she says in her clip, which is captioned, “No one tell my dentist.”
At first Rendulic tries a foam nail file, but when that fails to produce results, she switches to a metal one.
“I'm scared,” Rendulic whispers before starting to file her top teeth again. Over the sound of metal scraping against enamel, she adds, “This can't be good for my teeth.”
Rendulic said she only filed her teeth for a short period of time and didn't apply too much pressure, noting that the video's audio made it seem “much more harsh than it actually was.”
What Rendulic didn't film, though, was her subsequent attempt at filing. She said people had commented on her original video telling her to also do one of her bottom teeth that wasn't perfectly aligned.
“I probably filed it down way too much just because it was the most crooked, so I filed it until was in line with the rest of my teeth,” she said. Now, that's the tooth causing Rendulic the most discomfort whenever she eats or drinks anything cold — a problem she said she didn't have before filing her teeth.
When you file your nails, your nails grow back, but your teeth don't. That outer enamel layer doesn't grow back ... ZAINAB MACKIE
Sensitivity is just one of the issues that can arise for people who try to even out their teeth themselves, said Zainab Mackie, a Detroit dentist. Teeth have a thin, hard outer layer of enamel, Mackie said. The next layer is dentine, which is less dense than enamel and encases the pulp, the soft tissue that holds a tooth's nerve centre.
“When you file your nails, your nails grow back, but your teeth don't,” she said. “That outer enamel layer doesn't grow back ... Once it's gone, that's it.”
By grinding down your enamel and permanently removing the tooth structure, it's easier to develop cavities and nerve damage, said Benjamin Winters, an orthodontist whose Tiktok account, The Bentist, has more than 5.5 million followers.
“This trend is purely destructive against your teeth,” Winters said.
Winters, Mackie and other dental professionals have posted response videos on Tiktok urging people not to use nail files on their teeth, no matter how minor the imperfection.
“Don't get mad at me when your teeth are more sensitive than a two-year-old crying over spilled milk, because I ain't going to help you,” Winters says in one video. He later adds, “I can't handle you guys anymore.”
Although Dio said she hasn't experienced any negative side-effects, she researched tooth sensitivity beforehand and was “extremely careful.” Still, if she had seen the warnings from dentists, which did not become widespread until after she posted her video, Dio said, “I probably would have thought twice about it.”
Rendulic said she felt “instant regret” as she watched video after video of dentists and dental hygienists detailing the serious risks associated with at-home teeth filing.