Tooth Jewellery: Fashion and Dentistry go Hand in Hand
INTRODUCTION:- Dentistry is becoming a style statement now-edays but a decade back it was related to pain, fear and discomfort but gradually time have changed. Today, everyone is becoming increasingly self conscious about their appearance and smile. Younger generations follow their self made rules for looking fashionable and it applies to dentistry as well. With the increase in modernization, everybody wants to create their own visual style which is unique for themselves and yet identifiable for others. As a dentist, we might come across to people who demand something more from us than treating only diseases. Various treatments like body art and cosmetic dental treatments are becoming so attractive to achieve their desired aesthetic appearance, attention, to make a fashion statement and to be unique among the crowd. Body art includes tooth jewellery, tooth rings, tooth tattoo, removable tooth jewellery and many more.
TOOTH JEWELLERY:- Tooth jewellery is a cosmetic dental procedure in which diamond or any other stone is attached to the tooth surface in order to gain the spark and to look more fashionable. Diamond faceted smiles is one of the newest and most interesting trends sweeping across the planet all over in both men and women. Tooth jewellery are the type of small glass crystals that come in many sizes, colors and shapes that are quickly becoming fastened to teeth all over America. A tooth gem is a small rhinestone jewel is attached to the surface of a tooth using an adhesive. Some are small stones in the center of the tooth, other times people elect to place a jewel-encrusted cap over their teeth. Finally, some go for the grill: a decorative cover that fits over most of a person’s front teeth, popularized by artists such as Lil Wayne and Jonathan Davis.10 These glass crystals are real 18k white gold and 24k or 22k yellow gold jewels, designed specially for dental use.
TYPES OF TOOTH JEWELLERY:- Tooth jewellery can be of different types, following are as given below:
TOOTH
GEMS:-
TWINKLES:-
Twinkles are specially designed to be bonded to the tooth and its patented backside is similar to an orthodontic bracket which makes them to stay so long. Twinkles are pure gold and precious stones like diamonds, sapphire and ruby.8 The bonding is not as durable but can easily last for more than 6 months. These are the collection of 24-carat gold and white gold jewellery which is available in 50 different designs with some including diamonds, sapphires and ruby. Available twinkles are (twindent AB, Uppsala, Sweden). Most commonly used tooth for attachment are upper incisal and canines.8 The procedure of bonding any stone on the tooth surface is a painless, harmless, needs only 10- 15 minutes to apply.
TOOTH RINGS:- Another option which helps in establishment of the standard of living among youngsters is the use of tooth rings. This is similar to dental jewellery but the procedure is little different from dental jewellery. In dental rings, a small hole is placed towards the disto-incisal corner of the maxillary incisors and the ring is hung through it. Most commonly used preferred teeth are maxillary central incisors and the size of the perforation depends on the thickness of the ring selected.
DENTAL
TATTOO:-
Dental tattoo is also known as Tooth Tattoo, use of word tattoo is most commonly used to define ornamental designs on teeth which is a bit of amisnomer, as a tattoo, simply by definition, is a pigment mark made by piercing the skin. But in case of dental tattoos, the teeth are not pierced or even touch with a needle, and the material which is covered is enamel, not skin. Dental tattoos are custom designs which are added to dental crowns before the crowns are sealed and set in the mouth. Dental tattoos can be applied to any tooth and they have wide range of styles, colors, and designs. Most commonly used in the age group between 14-35 years.1 There are different catagories of tattooing that are used as dental tattoo including celebrities, flowers, religion, devotion to person or issue and animals. Tattoos can also be temporary used, they mostly are the designs in the form of templates that are stuck on the teeth. Sticking of temporary tattoo takes just 15-20 minutes.
REMOVABLE TOOTH JEWELLERY:- Another fashion trend which is similar to the tooth jewellery is known as REMOVABLE TOOTH JEWELLERY, the dissimilarity between other fashion trends and removable tooth jewellery is just, the stones that are permanently mounted on an invisible glass clear micro-skin which fits accurately on to the teeth inspite of directly bonded on the tooth. Neither etching nor preparation of the teeth is required. The impression is made and the microskin is fabricated in the lab on which the precious stones are attached. They are safe to wear in the mouth and will not damage the teeth or soft tissues, a wide selection of precious stones and gems are available in different sizes and colors. One of the advantage of removable tooth jewellery is that it can be removed by the patient itself and can also be fitted back when necessary.
DENTAL GRILLS:-
They are little more “bling” than the different tooth gems. Grills are most popular with American hip-hop stars and rappers. It is something that we might have seen in TV or in a magazine with this sort of tooth accessory. Usually they are made of solid metal such as gold and can also be used with precious stones. Most commonly they are used to cover the entire section of the front teeth, but moreover the design, positioning and material is completely unique to the individual. As it is a dramatic addition to the mouth but still it’s a sort of style for some.
COMPLICATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH TOOTH JEWELLERY:- there are certain complications associated with it because of that tooth jewellery is highly recommended only in those patients who are having good oral hygiene maintenance. The reason behind is many, some of them are illustrated below:
2. this is because the attachment area of the tooth jewellery is highly prone for plaque
accumulation, the area has to be clean as possible.
3. It should not be advised to the patient having high caries as some of the tooth jewellery require tooth preparation which causes a permanent defect on the teeth and these areas are prone to caries then.
4. Gingival inflammation, diminished articulation and metal allergy are also the some of the major complications associated with tooth jewellery.2
5. Sometimes movable jewellery can cause abrasion of teeth. Fixed teeth grills are very difficult to be kept clean and hence a removable type should be chosen.
CONCLUSION:- Patients want a sparkling smile in order to improve their beauty even more and the dentists want their teeth to be healthy. Dentists are committed in maintaining the health of teeth at all costs. Therefore, newer advances and trends in dental procedures are making dentistry more interesting among patients as well as dentists. These days’ tooth jewellery is becoming latest trend among youngsters specially. Unlike other, tooth jewellery, there is no pain, infection, no drilling and no damage to tooth, easily removable and at the same time add more attractiveness and sparkle to the smile, makes them more user friendly. Therefore, this trend has been gaining importance among people of all ages.
by: Sonal Bhatia, Nidhi Gupta, Preety Gupta, Vikram Arora, Nishant Mehta.
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