Viral smile trends: Yes or no?

Let's get to today's edition of Good Day to Your Health, focused on your teeth and your timeline. Facial aesthetic specialist Dr. Greg Martin is here to tell us exactly which viral tooth trends are worth the hype and which you could maybe just skip on because it might do more harm than good. We've got a list of viral trends, but first off, let's just set the stage here on how important it is to make sure that we do take care of our teeth, not just because we want a pretty smile, but it goes so far beyond that. Yeah, so your teeth are really connected to your entire wellness, and i think that a lot of times we overlook um just how much your teeth disclose about your general health so yeah i love talking about cosmetic stuff but i mean yes you you hit the you started off correctly like go to the dentist i know i'm somebody who i'll call myself out here i can judge if somebody's got some bad teeth or i can tell you haven't been flossing or you're not brushing like you know we need to have a conversation about this because it goes a long way and just communicating in your confidence um but a lot of people when they do want to get to is first off the importance of making sure in going you get your checkups. My mom was on me to make sure I go to my dentist every six months. Is that the right timing or is that just mom being excessive? Every six months is perfect. Mom, you're right. Well, and look at your teeth. I mean, you have the, and then the first time we met, I was like, oh my gosh, that smile. Yeah. It does take a lot of work though. You know, a lot of people are really afraid of the dentist. Do they have easier ways to help people that do have these fears to overcome it now? So I think a lot of the fear of the dentist is based on our parents' experiences who just didn't have the same anesthesia that we do. So, like, you know, when people say, am I going to get Novocaine? Well, the answer is no. Novocaine's been gone for years. We have much stronger—no one should feel any pain in the dentist today. And when you go to the dentist on a regular basis, there's less to be afraid of because you're not going to go in, like, I haven't been flossing for six months or, you know, six years, and now you have all these issues that you've got to go through of having to go there and maybe getting things done. So it's not as scary as it used to be, but make sure you stay up on it. Now, there's a lot of trends out there because everybody wants that pearly white smile, right? It translates well. Especially the holidays, coming into the holiday season. And we know coffee, red wine, all these things can help stain any kind of foods that we eat. So we're trying to figure out the right ways to get them to be like, I'm going to go through some trends. You tell me if it's yes or no, or if it's good or bad, okay? So let's start with the ultra white veneers. We see a lot of this. And veneers are something that it's a very, I mean, it's an elaborate process to get that. Yes or no? So I like veneers, but the best veneers are veneers. I know you said yes or no. The best veneers are teeth that you can't tell are veneers. Right. So ultra white, no. Okay, ultra white, no. You can get them in a natural white as possible. Yeah, so the more dental work you have done, the less it should look like you have had dental work done. Yeah. How about tooth gems? Tooth gems, I mean, I would prefer that you have it done by a dentist. A lot of these are done in offices that are not dental practices. Is a tooth gem, oh, it's legit putting jewelry on your teeth? Yeah, you're actually, you are bonding a jewel onto your tooth, which is really okay as long as you don't have decay underneath of it. So of course you just want your dentist to check it first. If I want that for just a little bit, can I get it and get it off? You can. Okay. That could be maybe fun for the holidays. No. All right. Maybe going too far for me. How about charcoal toothpaste? So charcoal toothpaste is definitely a trend that is for whitening teeth, but it doesn't actually whiten. In no world does charcoal bleach anything. It's just that it's abrasive. And so it's just scraping off the outer layer of the tooth. And sometimes those charcoal toothpastes are actually too abrasive and they can be removing enamel. So it doesn't actually whiten your teeth. It's just taking stain off aggressively. It kind of creeps me out doing that. We'll just leave charcoal for pressure on diamonds. How's that? Hopefully you won't get any for the holidays. Yes. DIY whitening hacks. I don't know what these could be, but you tell us if somebody's doing them. So whitening at home, I think is actually a really effective way to whiten your teeth. And the reason is that it's about exercise. It's like, do you want to go to the gym and work out with a personal trainer one time, or do you want to work out every day on your own? So I really, and you're probably going to be surprised to hear this as a dentist that I'm saying, yeah, whiten your teeth at home. But what I want as a dentist is that you're using something that's ADA approved and you're using it consistently. Yeah. So I've gone in and had them done by a dentist, but I also maintain at home by myself. So you can keep it up with no matter what food or beverages that you may be consuming to keep your smile bright and white thank you so much for stopping in and sharing these uh these trends and these hacks that maybe people try to use in order to get that again that glowing smile yeah you're very welcome all right thank you great to have you back as always and i'm sure we'll be back here uh again as you've got so many different things going on in your office if you want to check them out go to gregorymartindds.com there is on instagram lots of stuff going on in your office so thanks for stopping by thanks all right makia all right Julie, I've got to see if you get the teeth gems.