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The 5 Strangest Dental Stories of 2015

  • January 31, 2016
  • 5 min read
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The 5 Strangest Dental Stories of 2015

If you’re still awkwardly turning a 5 into a 6 whenever you write the date, then like many, you’re probably still reflecting on the year that was.   Whether it was good or bad for you personally, you have to admit that it was a pretty strange rotation around the sun for us as a whole.

Strange Stories

A billionaire reality TV star became a political frontrunner, water was discovered on Mars and an unremarkable striped dress made the entire planet question their perception of color.  

So it should come as no surprise that a lot of weird things happened to people’s teeth as well.  Some are hilarious while others will just leave you shaking your head, but they’re all certainly some of the strangest things that happened last year…

1.Shocking Solution

One woman in the UK had a dental phobia that caused her to superglue her teeth back in her mouth when they broke.  This practice, which took place for over a decade, stemmed from the fact that the woman’s mother’s throat cancer was discovered during a routine dental procedure.  Unsurprisingly, when she did finally make it to a dentist, it was discovered that 90% of the bone supporting her teeth had been eroded by the toxic chemicals in the glue.

She was forced to spend her life saving’s on treatment to remove most of her teeth and have titanium pins and false teeth put in.  The lesson here should be that no dentist visit is worth the pain and cost of undergoing a major procedure to undo years of neglect and unhealthy practices.  Keep that in mind next time you’re thinking about putting off your check-up.

2.Tools for Teeth

Many people have the very bad habit of using their teeth as tools, but rugby players in Argentina took it to a whole new level.  It’s not unusual for the full-contact sport to result in lost teeth – what was unusual was when Salta beer company offered a few players the chance to get new and “improved” replacements for the teeth they lost in battle.

Instead of regular dental implants that are made to look like real teeth, they replaced the 3 players’ lost molar with a specially made, silver, tooth-shaped implant that doubles as a bottle opener.  Of course the implant is also branded with the beer company’s name and the process was documented in an entertaining commercial you have to see to believe.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OKPMXu96gI

3.Love & Wisdom

When you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, you givTooth Ringe yourself to them mind, body and soul.  But some people take that more literally than others.  Take, for example, California couple Carlee Leifkes and Lucas Unger – when he proposed to her on Halloween of last year, he offered up a ring that had his own wisdom tooth in place of the traditional diamond.

The two freely admit to being an untraditional couple and say that the ring is a symbol of their quirky personalities.  The ring was created by an LA jeweler and Leifkes thinks it’s representative of her betrothed’s commitment to her: “Every tooth is different, and the tooth also shows what my husband’s willing to go through for me. Lucas literally grew this and went through pain when he got it removed, and all that went into my wedding ring.”

4. Dentist Impersonator

Dressing up as something you’re not may be fun for a costume party, but it’s certainly no laughing matter when it comes to impersonating a profession that isn’t your own… especially when that profession involves the safety of others.  That’s why the story of one New York dental practice manager is so disturbing.  For an entire year, she purposely scheduled appointments for when the actual dentist wouldn’t be there, and then performed procedures as serious as root canals on uninsured patients to whom she’d offered a cash discount. 

She was only discovered after several patients complained about complications that resulted from the procedures.  The lesson of this odd story is to always do your research on any health professional you entrust your safety and wellbeing to.  A mere Google search would have told patients that this woman was not a licensed dentist and had no business acting as one.

5.LeBron at LeDentist

Back in Mach, 2015 basketball star Lebron James took to Instagram to document his dentist appointment and ended up revealing a little something about himself in the process.   King James might be an infallible superhero on the court, but in the dentist’s chair, he’s just a regular guy who gets worried the moment he hears a drill.  

Lebron

James posted a picture of himself looking very suspicious and nervous, with the caption, “Back at the dentist and I’m hearing a bunch of drilling going on behind me from my docs so I had to sit up like “What the heck is going on back there”. Hahaha but seriously what’s up.”  Although we might not have gotten an update on how it all turned out, we can assume he was a trooper and made it out OK.  The handsome smile he flashes after a big win is still intact and he probably made dental phobs everywhere feel like they’re not alone.  

Hopefully learning about these strange events were not just interesting, but illuminating – from even the most bizarre dental story, we can learn a thing or two about how to take better care of our own pearly whites.

About the Author:

Kim

Dr. Kimberly Dyoco is a passionate dentist and the founder of her own cosmetic and general dentistry practice in downtown Chicago, One Mag Smile.  She enjoys providing the best possible care for her patients and educating people about dental health as a frequent guest blogger on a variety of online publications.  For more, visit www.1MagSmile.com today.

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