New Delhi: Just when you think social media has exhausted every possible beauty trend, some influencer looks into the mirror and discovers a new surface to decorate. Ladies and gentlemen, you are in the era of tooth piercing.
Videos featuring tiny gems, crystals, charms, and even miniature pieces of jewellery attached to teeth are going viral on Instagram. For some, tooth piercing is the latest form of self-expression. It is what Gen Z calls “customising my character.”
A generation that grew up choosing digital outfits for video game characters is now applying the same logic to their own appearance. So, after customising hair, nails, and eyebrows. It’s time to get a customised tooth.
The trend itself is simple. Unlike traditional piercings, most tooth piercings do not actually involve puncturing anything. Tiny gems or decorative accessories are attached to the surface of a tooth using adhesive and dental curing light, creating the illusion that your smile has its own jewellery collection.
Of course, tooth jewellery isn’t entirely new, with hip-hop culture giving us grills and diamond-encrusted smiles. But Gen Z has a unique talent of taking niche celebrity aesthetics and turning them into mainstream ambitions.
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A beauty movement or fad?
The tooth piercing trend feels like the natural next step in an internet culture that treats the human body as an endlessly upgradeable project. There is always something new to tweak, decorate, optimise or personalise. The ideal look is no longer achieved, it is constantly updated.
The internet has already normalised eyebrow slits, vampire facials, freckles drawn with makeup, freckles tattooed permanently, and 15-step skincare routine. Against that backdrop, a crystal attached to a front tooth somehow feels both ridiculous and not so bizarre.
Whether tooth piercing becomes a lasting beauty movement or disappears as quickly as it arrived remains to be seen. Even if this particular craze fades away, another one will inevitably replace it.
But if teeth can become fashion accessories, nothing is off limits anymore.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)