A recent trend started by a creative on TikTok suggests using a household product called Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to be used as a teeth whitener.
Although the warning label says in all caps, “AVOID ACCIDENTS: DO NOT USE ON SKIN OR OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY. USING ON SKIN WILL LIKELY CAUSE ABRASIONS, KEEP OUT OF REACH OF TODDLERS AND PETS TO AVOID ACCIDENTAL INGESTION,” this didn’t stop a dangerous trend.
“Yeah, your teeth are white because you scrubbed all the enamel off them. So, in fact, no don’t do this,” Dr. Benjamin Winters, a dentist at Wincrest Orthodontics in Texas, said in a video posted on TikTok.
Winters reportedly stated that the Magic Eraser sponge has an ingredient called melamine foam. Reportedly when melamine foam is mixed with ingredients such as water, it becomes, “hard as glass and acts like a really abrasive sandpaper.”
According to WFTV, the trend started in June when TikToker Heather Dunn shared her controversial teeth-whitening routine in a video she posted where she said:
“Yes, I am prepared for all the dentists that are going to come on here and be like, ‘don’t do it, she’s crazy!’ I don’t care. I go to the dentist, and I don’t tell them what I do, but they’re like, ‘you have the healthiest, strongest, cleanest teeth,’ and I’m like, ‘why, thank you.’
“Step number one, I don’t use any fluoride at all. When the dentist says, ‘use your fluoride, don’t rinse,’ umm… no, I don’t do that… Number two, I do something called oil pulling,’ I look it up on YouTube and I use coconut oil…
“Number three, and here is where we all gasp. This is a Magic Eraser. Yeah, that’s what I said. I take a little, tiny piece of it and wet it, don’t touch your gums… I’ve been doing it for, like, two years.”
Dunn’s video is now accompanied by a TikTok warning that states: “The action in this video could result in serious injury.”
@theheatherdunn
