The Hidden Dangers of Using Your Teeth as Tools: What You Need to Know

Exploring the True Dangers of Using Your Teeth as Tools: The Unknown Risks

By Dr. Sibuti Riro, Consultant Periodontist

We have all been guilty of using our teeth for tasks they weren't designed for. From tearing open stubborn packaging to opening bottle caps absentmindedly, our teeth often serve as convenient stand-ins for tools. However, your dentist in Supreme Smiles Avenue, Nairobi wants to remind you that there are tools designed to specifically help us open pesky packages, bottle caps, and those tools aren’t our teeth. Both children and adults alike can damage their teeth if they’re used for anything other than chewing food. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ways tooth damage occurs when we use teeth as tools.

1. Popping Bottle Caps

For adults, there’s a popular, yet dangerous, ‘bar trick’ that involves a bottle top being popped open using nothing but teeth. Truthfully, this can actually cause trouble. At best, opening a bottle with your teeth puts you at risk of a chipped tooth. At worst? You may incur serious damage to the tooth, leading to tooth loss.

2. Cutting or Opening Packages

Two of the most common ways kids and adults use their teeth as tools are to use them to quickly open packages or to cut tags that, in reality, should be handled with scissors. We get it, it’s often faster to rip a tag off a new shirt or rip open that bag of crips with your teeth instead of finding a pair of scissors. However, doing so can also result in broken or chipped teeth.

Additionally, cuts to the gums, lips, or other areas around the mouth can also occur.

3. Cracking nuts or seeds

Nuts and seeds are tasty foods, and they can be good for your teeth due to the vitamins and minerals they provide for your body. However, getting through their shells is a job best left to a nutcracker or a pair of pliers. Cracking nuts or seeds with your teeth poses all the same risks as opening bottles. This can cause stress fractures, chipped teeth, broken teeth, and potential tooth loss. Again, best not to do it at all.

4. Biting or crunching on ice

Another seemingly innocuous behavior that can have long-term consequences to your teeth is biting or chewing ice. Refrigerator ice can be much harder than you might think, and chomping down on it can lead to permanent tooth damage. It’s another habit that you should break, right away.
5. Biting your nails

Nail-biting may seem innocuous, but it’s actually a contributing behavior to tooth damage. It takes a surprising amount of force to bite through the tough tissue of a human fingernail, and doing so repeatedly can lead to small stress fractures in the teeth. Over time, these small fractures can build up and lead to a broken or cracked tooth. It’s best to avoid this habit altogether.

6. Nibbling On Non-Food Items

While our teeth are designed to chew and breakdown foods, they aren’t necessarily designed to chew on everything. Things like pens and pencils can also cause tooth damage as well as put unnecessary stress on the jaw joint. Additionally, these items can be covered in germs which, if ingested, can make us sick.

7. Sewing your Teeth Away

Do you bite off the thread instead of using scissors? It may be saving you a few seconds by biting off the thread with your teeth, but it wears down your teeth.  You or your dentist will first notice mild abrasions, but overtime could lead to more serious wear and tear of your gums and teeth.

8. Sucking on Lemons

Lemons are very acidic which can cause significant erosion to your tooth enamel and the surface underneath the enamel called dentin. In fact, most citrus fruit (lemons, limes, grapefruit etc.) will have the same impact on your teeth. People who do this show high levels of erosion, some beyond repair.

9. Other ways your teeth can be damaged by misuse

– Opening bobby pins with your teeth

– Using your teeth to remove a staple from paper

– Holding things with your teeth as if you’re using it as an extra hand.

In conclusion, the next time the urge to use your teeth as tools strikes, take a moment to reconsider. The risks and consequences far outweigh the convenience, and your teeth deserve to be treated with the utmost care and respect.

However, if you do sustain a tooth injury, we encourage you to call your Supreme Smiles Avenue Dental Center dentist to schedule an appointment quickly so you can get the care you need and get back to smiling in no time.

Dr. Sibuti Riro is a consultant Periodontist at Supreme Smiles Avenue Dental Center located in Kilimani along Tigoni Road directly opposite Naivas Kilimani entrance. He can be reached via 0721568972