Whether you call them grills, fronts or grillz, dental jewelry is the hottest accessory around. Nelly wears grillz to sing about wearing grillz, and everybody-girls and guys, from the rhythm-challenged to the rap stars-wants mouth bling. Here's keep smiling while you care for your grills and the mouth they decorate.
Instructions
Start Off Right
1. Get your dental health checked out. Make sure your teeth and gums are in good shape. Wearing grills on decayed, crooked teeth or puffy gums will be murder on your look as well as your mouth.
2. Buy the best bling you can afford. Choose gold, platinum or silver for the base. Cheaper metals may contain allergy-triggering nickel, and will discolor easily and taste awful. (Plastic, needless to say, is strictly for one night of trick-or-treat.) Be sure any jewels, real or faux, are attached firmly, and all windows and edges are smooth.
3. Match your grills to your mouth. Your grills and your smile will last longer if you have your fronts professionally fitted. Have your dentist or your jeweler make a dental-quality mold. It's a messy process, but worth it. Or use the kit that comes with good mail-order grills; you bite into a silicon bar to make an impression of your teeth, mail it back to the vendor and get your grills made to fit in a couple of weeks.
4. Choose only removable grills. If you want 24/7 dental bling, have your dentist make gold implants. Grills are a dental accessory, not a replacement. You wouldn't glue a purse to your wrist or shades to your eyes, so don't even think about gluing your grills to your teeth.
Keep Your Grills (and Your Smile) Gleaming
5. Remove your grills frequently-and always before you eat. Give your mouth and your bling a break.
6. Brush your teeth, floss and rinse your mouth after you remove your grills and before you insert them. Even the best-fitting fronts leave room to trap food particles and bacteria, promoting plaque, tooth and gum decay and (yuck) major bad breath. You don't want to spend all that money on flash only to turn people off.
7. Clean your grills every time you wear them-at least once a day for prolonged wear. Use only a solution of mild dishwashing liquid in cool water. Slosh them around in the soapy water, and gently loosen any debris with a very soft toothbrush. Rinse your grills thoroughly and buff them dry with a soft cloth.
8. Store your grills in the box they came in or in an airtight plastic container. Be sure your fronts are clean and dry before storing them.
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