By Morgan Sung -
NBC News
Growing up, Skylar Geiger said other kids called her
SpongeBob
because of the gaps between her teeth.
“In real life and on social media they told me I was gorgeous until I smiled,” says Geiger, who has 28,500 followers.
She "hated" her smile because she often compared it to what she saw on the internet.
Although her teeth have always been "very healthy," they didn't look like the perfectly aligned pearly whites she desperately wanted.
Since she didn't have dental insurance and couldn't afford the expense, she turned to YouTube to change his teeth.
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Before her 19th birthday in 2020, she bought dental cement, which is often used to fill cavities, and applied the material to her teeth with the back of an earring.
She documented the process on TikTok, joining hundreds of other viral tooth hacks on the platform.
His video has more than two million views.
Geiger's DIY attempt isn't uncommon: Although she said she didn't permanently damage her teeth, others haven't had such luck.
Dental DIY content has become so ubiquitous on TikTok in recent years that it has spawned a generation of dentist-
influencers
who have made a following by reacting to botched dental care.
The #DIYdentist hashtag has over three million views on the app.
The perfect image projected on social media can amplify viewers' insecurities, especially if they don't have access to affordable dental care.
TikTok and YouTube are overflowing with tutorials promising the perfect smile, without the exorbitant cost of visiting an uninsured dentist.
However, many registered dentists, orthodontists and oral surgeons have raised concerns about the popularity of DIY dental content.
Tutorials on unsafe body alterations abound on the internet, and those that affect the teeth can cause permanent damage.
Tooth enamel does not regenerate, so attempts to achieve an unattainable standard of beauty can have lifelong consequences.
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Dental DIY content is especially popular on TikTok.
Many videos are relatively innocuous, such as home teeth whitening “tricks” that are gentle enough for people with sensitive teeth.
Technically trained creators have posted about making their own dental gear, from an artist who made her own night guards to a creator who 3D printed her own Invisalign.
Other DIY practices that have gone viral include shaving your teeth with a nail file to make them appear straighter, wrapping your teeth with office gums to close gaps, and removing braces at home with a spoon.
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Also popular are tutorials on composite veneers, which use resin to cover and reshape teeth.
TikTok users have posted that they have taken two-day courses to learn how to apply veneers, without any other formal dental training.
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Dr. Ben Winters, an orthodontist known on TikTok and YouTube as The Bentist, said his educational videos reacting to dental DIY content have been an "absolute success."
Not all dental DIY content is harmful.
Cosplayers [people who
dress
up as a specific character or idea] who use denture wax to make vampire fangs, for example, or people who get temporary dental gems probably won't suffer any long-term side effects.
“Most of those things are pretty harmless,” Winters said.
“If you start using dental-grade materials and try to do what the dentist does, then you start making permanent changes to your teeth that you can't just remove,” he added.
But many dental DIY videos can cause serious damage.
Tips for shaving your teeth to make them appear straighter or more proportionate often resurface on YouTube and TikTok, with few warning viewers of the pain and long-lasting dental problems that can ensue.
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Responding to a video of someone using a nail file to shave teeth, a TikTok user said that when she tried to do the same, she was in such severe pain that she had to take painkillers "every two hours."
Anyway, she ended up going to the dentist.
“As embarrassing as it was, I had to tell him what I did.
And she told me: 'You are a complete idiot.
Obviously you have filed your nerve, ”says the TikTok user in the video.
“I was going to need a root canal.
There were two procedures.
I've had to go twice."
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Teeth are organs with their own blood supply and delicate nerve structures, something "people don't understand," Winters explains.
By carving away the hard, protective enamel that covers the surface of a tooth, "you're basically giving yourself a deadline for how long that tooth can last."
Although research on treatments such as synthetic enamel and stem cell repair of teeth is promising, natural enamel does not regenerate on its own.
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That's why Winters is so concerned about young people undergoing major cosmetic dental treatments.
It is not comparable to many other cosmetic procedures that are reversible or affect parts of the body that can be repaired.
“This is a permanent decision.
These teeth are not going to come back, you're not going to get anything else," Winters said.
“The lip filler dissolves.
The botox wears off.
If you get implants, you can remove them.
Once you alter the shape of your teeth, that's gone forever,” she warned.
Before applying veneers, cosmetic dentists often prepare teeth by lightly shaving off the top layer of enamel.
According to Dr. Desiree Yazdan, a dentist specializing in aesthetic and restorative treatments, they are trained to preserve as much enamel as possible.
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People who do it themselves or turn to hobbyists who have veneer shops in their homes may not take the same conservative approach.
Some who say they received veneers from unlicensed amateurs have complained that their veneers fall off and they develop bad breath — which one dentist on TikTok said could be caused by tooth decay under the veneer.
“And they basically reduce the tooth to a knot all the way up and put some glue on it, and they don't realize that they've just ruined one of the most important things in their body, which is their teeth,” Winters explained.
“A lot of people don't understand how important it is to have teeth for your life until they've lost them all...if the shape of your teeth is good, and they're just a little crooked, you just have to get them fixed by an orthodontist” , he pointed.
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Yazdan, who also posts educational content on TikTok, said that while patients may want veneers for cosmetic appeal, they're not for everyone.
Patients who are candidates for veneers may have certain conditions that drastically affect the shape of their teeth, or have naturally darker teeth that have not responded to whitening treatments.
Some may want to cover a chipped tooth.
But Yazdan said he has had patients as young as 18 ask for veneers, despite already having "beautiful healthy teeth."
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“They are so pretty.
It's sad because they think they're not good enough,” Yazdan said.
“I think the pressure to look perfect and have the perfect smile is really there,” he added.
Yazdan added that many people don't take dental care seriously.
“No one would think of saying, 'I'm going to buy myself a homemade nose job kit, and I'm going to take this scalpel and watch this YouTube video on how to open my nose,'” Yazdan recalled.
A person's physical appearance can influence their actual success in almost any field.
Although some content creators strive to subvert beauty canons, an influencer's physical appearance influences their engagement.
Musician Brandon Andre said his appearance was crucial to his career opportunities.
Six years ago, he placed rubber bands around his two front teeth every day for six weeks to close the gap between them.
He said cost was not a factor.
He just didn't want to wait for Invisalign or braces because his teeth were “already straight”.
It seems to have worked, said Andre, now 30.
“I closed the gap so I could win beauty privilege,” Andre said in an Instagram post.
“When you have that, what industry would a person not be successful in?
And having the perfect smile not only made me pretty, but it made me sing better,” he said.
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André added that he can control his breathing better without air escaping through the gap between his teeth.
She now wears a permanent retainer to prevent her teeth from splitting.
“My dentist yelled at me when I told him what I had done and refused to put my permanent retainer on me,” Andre says.
He ended up going to another dentist, to whom he assures that he "enjoyed" the DIY.
In a TikTok video, Andre explains that the retainer cost him $350, less than he would have paid for a brace.
"It wouldn't occur to anyone to say, 'I'm going to buy myself a homemade nose job kit and watch a YouTube video on how to do it.'
DESIRE YAZDAN
Trying to do dental work yourself can save some money up front, Yazdan noted, but you'll likely pay more for treatment of any problems that arise from your DIY attempts.
Even if attempts like Andre's appear to be successful, they could cause unseen damage.
“It's very dangerous because they don't know what they're doing.
They can see how teeth move on the surface, but they don't see what's going on under the gums, bone and roots," Yazdan explained.
Trying to move unformed teeth can shorten the roots, loosen the teeth, and lead to gum disease.
Dental care remains out of reach for many Americans.
A 2022 survey by the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit health organization, revealed that 77 million Americans lack dental insurance.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that fewer than 63% of Americans ages 18 and older visited a dentist between 2019 and 2020, a decline from nearly 66% the year before. .
Many orthodontists offer payment plans to spread the cost of braces and other orthodontic treatment.
Yazdan noted that dental schools often offer discounted care, and procedures are always supervised by university professors.
Both options can be more expensive than viral dental treatment, but there is less chance of damaging otherwise healthy teeth.
Geiger has not made another attempt to change his teeth.
After posting the videos of him, dentists warned him in the comments that he was risking cavities and gum problems by covering the gaps between his teeth.
When her dental cement fell out a year later, she tried putting on a fin—a partial denture—but it was too painful for daily wear.
She now tries more to overcome her insecurities than to alter her appearance.
"Now I just try to accept my own smile until I get it under control," says Geiger.
"If my friends, family, and ex-boyfriends were able to move on from it like it wasn't a problem, why should I be able to do the same?"
