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Here's a little dentistry hack I did.

13 points by timinman ↗ HN
First off, I don't recommend anyone try doing your own dentistry based on my experience.

I had a dark, tea-stained porcelain cap on one of my front teeth. It was really starting to look bad, so I did some online searches hoping to learn how to bleach it to match my other teeth. I was disappointed to learn that you can't. I finally decided that what my cap needed was to be polished, so I inserted a pencil point-side-down into a cordless drill and spun the eraser to polish it (being careful not to rub against my natural teeth or gums). It took about 30 seconds and completely removed the discoloration.

7 comments

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atgm
If you'd accidentally rubbed the metal eraser binding on a tooth while doing that, it probably would have done some damage.

How did it taste?

timinman
Yeah. It was a nice full eraser and it really didn't wear much. There wasn't really a taste, or bits to spit out or anything.
hammock
How much damage would it actually cause if you hit a real tooth? Dentists polish people's teeth all the time with fast spinny tools.
veb
What the fuck man? You've got balls of steel.
Pickhardt
Sounds like you probably removed the enamel. Lack of enamel can cause tooth decay. Although you have a cap, which could protect you. Still, did you think about that?

Did you at least discuss with a dentist first?!

simon_
He removed the enamel from his artificial cap?
timinman
Yeah, it was a porcelain cap, not a real tooth I polished, porcelain is basically like glass.