When you use social media, you can be seen by thousands of people, so it’s understandable that you’d want a perfect, white smile.
Both according to TikToker and dental office employee @dani_bananni, people are going about fulfilling that desire for a filmable smile the wrong way.
“This is 100% illegal,” she begins her video about her concerns.
It has gone viral and has over 670,000 Likes.
It starts with a clip of a woman getting dental work, admiring her smile and then posing with a framed certificate.
Then Dani’s video plays. “We need to talk about it before you fall victim to spending $2000 for a bright white smile.”
She adds: “The only people that are licensed in the United States to perform veneers are dentists.”
And becoming a dentist is no easy feat.
“You have to go to school for eight years” to become a Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) or a Doctor of Medical Dentistry (D.M.D.).”
But Dani understands that people don’t get how serious this is. “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Why are you so ****ing serious about this?’”
Dental care is healthcare and Dani is troubled by the blasé attitude so many people have about veneers.
“When you start chipping away the enamel and filing down the tooth structure,” she explains. “You are seriously risking tooth damage and nerve damage.”
On top of that, “This isn’t like a fingernail or A Lash or an eyebrow – something that grows back.”
But what else can you do?
“If you want the bright beautiful smile, get Crest White Strips or go to your dentist and get custom bleaching trays, maybe Invisalign.”
Here’s the full video.
@dani_bananni #greenscreenvideo this is terrifying! Please do NOT do this! #dental #dentalfield #veneers #foryou #fyp
Check out what people are saying.
A lot of people were outraged at how common these kinds of things are, like this person.
There were great reminders in the comments about how your teeth can affect your heart and vice versa.
There is a lot of other awareness in the comment section, like the risk of infection in the brain.
This trend seemed familiar to some folks.
This person also had questions about why people get away with this. Someone responded that the person in this Stitch did not!
Don’t mess with your health, people.
And definitely not with your teeth.
If you liked that story, check out this one about a Costco customer who got their cart stolen… so she hatched a plan to get it back!