The Alarming Trend of DIY Dentistry
The cinnamon challenge…eating Tide pods…the internet has delivered a number of unhealthy viral trends that fill kid’s social streams with bad ideas. Recently, a new trend is gaining in popularity—one that combines the empowering appeal of a “life hack” with frequently unsafe home healthcare practices. DIY Dentistry. This trend is causing an increasing number of illnesses and injuries from botched procedures, and the number of sources of misinformation is only increasing.
What Is DIY Dentistry?
DIY Dentistry comes in the form of readily available videos and kits which offer tips, tricks, and other home-grown approaches to managing dental issues that should be handled by trained professionals. This trend isn’t being driven just by teens-being-teens and trying anything they see online, but also by those who have had to find alternatives to standard dental treatment due to their location or financial limitations.
This issue has become a big enough problem that the 160,000+ dentists of the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists, the American Association of Orthodontists and others were forced to begin advertising campaigns in late 2018 to warn parents and kids.
“Public health and safety is our number one concern, and that’s why we are taking steps to educate the public about DIY dentistry,” said Dr. Joseph P. Crowley, ADA president. “Dentists play a role, too, and should talk with their patients about DIY treatments.” Nigel Carter OBE, Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, warns: “DIY dentistry is both dangerous and unnecessary. It is all too easy to make the problem worse, which could result in more invasive and expensive treatment, so I urge those considering self-treatment to think again.”
This issue goes much farther than clinicians being cautious. Even news outlets like Vice News, the New York Times, and countless local CBS/NBC/ABC news affiliates have spoken out and reported on the dangers inherent with this trend. A quick Google Video search for the Dangers of DIY Dentistry will quickly give you an idea of how big an issue this is becoming. Some of these processes can cause serious injury which require costly surgeries and procedures to then correct, so it pays to know what to look for.
Types of DIY Dentistry
While it’s impossible to predict all of the ways that inventive minds may suggest skipping the dentist in favor of home treatments, the following are the most prevalent and troubling:
- DIY cavity filling – These videos encourage everything from using wax or household materials to mixing your own dental packing and adhesive materials. Even with the safer temporary wax which you’ve always been able to buy at the pharmacy, without a dentist, you only know where the pain is, you can’t tell the specific cause or location. Using a DIY method risks more deeply burying the underlying cause of the pain and extending the amount of professional care needed to correct the issue.
- Self-whitening – This is an area where there are some safe home-options, but also a number of misleading sources for DIY approaches. Even clinically tested and proven whitening products from major manufacturers like Colgate includes language that strongly urges you to include regular visits to your dentist and discussion of the use of their products as a part of a healthy oral plan.