Golden Smiles and Ghoulish Points: Just How Harmful are Dental Fashion Trends?

It’s hard to understand dental bling and jewellery. After all, what ever happened to a good, ol’ fashioned bright smile? However, dental fashion accessories have become popular for some celebrities. And if your favourite celebrity is sporting new grillz, then you can bet hordes of others will soon follow suit. Most of these styles are perfectly harmless and can be adapted to teeth and removed quite easily. Some of these trends, though, can be quite dangerous for patients. We’ll cover some of these trends in detail here, but please be warned that we do not endorse them in any way.

Mouth Grillz

Hip-hop artists first wore these in the early 1980s, and they were mostly removable appliances made for the front teeth in gold and silver. The appliances picked up in popularity in the mid-2000s as hip-hop became more popular and mainstream. No clinical studies have been carried out on the effect of dental grillz, but if the appliance is made properly and worn intermittently, wearers are at low risk for dental problems.

Dental Jewellery

Dental jewellery is specifically made by dental companies to accentuate teeth. The jewellery comprises of stick-on tooth crystals in several different shapes and sizes. Dental companies manufacture special kits, and these jewels can be stuck on to the surface of the tooth with composite restorative material. The jewel remains on the surface of the tooth for anywhere from six months to about two years. However, patients cannot remove the jewel, as it has to be removed by a dentist.

Custom Tattooed Teeth

Dental tattoos are popular in large part because they are relatively simple to make. Tattoos are not created on real teeth but on artificial crowns. For example, if the patient wants crowns or bridges, the custom measurement is taken. The dentist then instructs the lab about the image or tattoo required on the tooth surface, and the laboratory technician creates the images or paints the image on the ceramic crown before the final glazing, finishing and polishing. Any kind of image can be created, and the tattoos do not affect the tooth or the surrounding gum. If the patient does not like the image or tattoo on the crown, they images can be removed quickly with a simple polishing procedure

Gold Caps

Gold caps are not new. In fact, many dentists regularly made gold caps, but the material was phased out when ceramic and tooth-coloured restorations became popular. However, the golden metal has come back into style with rappers and hip-hop artists sporting several versions of the dental restoration.

Vampire Canines

Ever since the vampire craze became mainstream, tons of fans tried emulating those ghoulishly sharp canines. Most dentists advise against this, but it’s not possible to prevent patients from taking matters into their own hands. As a result, patients have used files to sharpen their natural canines to create the classic pointy tooth profile seen in the movies. Patients are strongly advised against this and should speak with a Canada Bay Dental dentist before considering such a procedure.

Midline Spaces and Snaggle Tooth Smiles

Midline spacing is a very common style and several celebrities proudly sport the central spacing. In fact, model and host Tyra Banks (“America’s Top Model”) actually encouraged a model to increase the space between her teeth, as it was a hot trend model agencies were looking for. Apart from the central spacing, even snaggle-toothed smiles have become popular in Japan, where the sharp canine overlaps the lateral tooth, presenting an irregular smile.