Thoughts from Dr. Mitchell Josephs:
Olympics gold medal figure skater Alyssa Liu glided her way to worldwide glory while sporting some interesting dental bling that I couldn’t quite identify.
I kept pausing the TV to make a diagnosis, but I could not lift her upper lip to check.
(If I were at the arena in Italy, I might have had a shot — but I would have been swarmed by the polizia.) I thought it was two silver balls of dental jewelry, which can be bonded to teeth pretty easily. I was wrong. She has a frenum piercing — which is a horseshoe-shaped ring with two balls on the ends that are inserted through a hole in the thin skin flap that attaches your upper lip to the gum area between the upper front two teeth.
While the whole world was charmed by everything about Liu’s style, for most folks this choice is not a good idea. These areas are prone to infections because the mouth is full of bacteria that can invade soft tissues, and the metal ornaments can erode tooth enamel.
Thoughts from Dr. Jonathan Josephs:
There’s a lot of talk about U.S. Olympics Men’s Hockey Team player Jack Hughes spitting out his front teeth. I wouldn’t call this a mistake since he ended up scoring the gold-medal-winning goal. Hockey is a rough sport. A couple of root canals and crowns will have him fixed up like new.
When it comes to a celebrity tooth mistake, let’s revisit Green Day’s opening performance at this year’s Super Bowl.
While the game was a snoozer for long stretches, I was at the edge of my seat watching the camera zoom in on lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s mouth. His gums were red, and his lower teeth looked long, which could possibly mean chronic gum disease.
The point here is that people do notice what is going on inside your mouth, even if you don’t think so. It’s like having untrimmed ear hair — it’s a small detail that does get noticed. People notice long teeth, and red gums. Make sure you practice proper home care, like daily flossing, and see your hygienist for a cleaning every six months so that your gums look amazing.
Dr. Josephs practices Implant Cosmetic and General Dentistry with an emphasis on implants, veneers and complex crown and bridge treatment. He is on staff at JFK Medical Center and is a Faculty Advisory Board member at McGill University’s Faculty of Dentistry. He completed his residency at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center and Mt. Sinai Hospital. Published in the JADA (Journal of the American Dental Association) October 2017.