Angie Barlow used superglue to fix broken teeth so she wouldn't have to go to the dentist and she ended up losing 90 percent of the bone along her top jaw, say dentists who finally treated her.
She's not alone.
KSAZ-TV reported there are more than 6,000 YouTube videos on do-it-yourself dentistry fixes, from making your own bridges to attempting to close a gap between the teeth. However, superglue is toxic and can damage the root canal, one dentist told the television station.
Barlow, 48, attempted the form of do-it-yourself dentistry after her mother died 10 years ago of throat cancer and became terrified of going to the dentist herself,
according to Britain's The Mirror.
"I've always been scared of the dentist because my mum died at 34 from throat cancer," said Barlow. "She had a tooth out, and that's how they found she had cancer. That fear has always been in the back of my mind… you just get your mind set and you just think you don't go. You don't make that phone call."
But the use of the superglue, along with Barlow's smoking habit, left her teeth a wreck. Dentist eventually inserted titanium pins into her skull and then screwed false teeth into place.
"It's probably one of the worst cases that I've seen and certainly one of the worse cases of desperation, to superglue a tooth back in the mouth," Dr. Derpil Djemal, a consultant and clinical lead at Kings College Hospital, told The Mirror.
BBC News reported that Barlow's case is featured in a television documentary, "The Truth About Your Teeth," which will air on Thursday. In the documentary, Barlow says she became so ashamed of the appearance of her teeth that she would put her hand over her mouth when she talked.
Dentists warn that self-done procedures will simply make the situation worse and force that person to go to the dentist for even more expensive procedures, noted KSAZ-TV.
Dr. Stephanie Kethcart told the television station that superglue for cracked or broken teeth is actually popular among do-it-yourself dentists.
"They're concerned that they don't want to go around without a tooth in so super glue on the crown or the tooth and stuck it back in myself," Kethcart told KSAZ-TV, noting that superglue is toxic and can damage the root canal.
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