‘The White Lotus’ star Aimee Lou Wood’s smile is inspiring to fans—and a dangerous TikTok trend
The breakout star of this season of The White Lotus? Aimee Lou Wood—and her distinctive real-life smile. “I mean, I can’t believe the impact my teeth are having,” the English actress told Jonathan Ross last month on Ross’s eponymous British chat show. “I hope that people don’t start, like, filing their teeth so they have gaps.”
Too late.
Unfortunately, Wood may have unintentionally reignited a troubling DIY dentistry trend. On TikTok, users are once again taking nail files to their own teeth, with hashtags like #teethfiling and #teethfile, racking up more than 130 posts, according to Screenshot Media.
While Wood’s smile may be the most recent inspiration, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Teeth-filing videos have been circulating online for years. “I’m going to file my teeth down with a nail file because they are not perfect,” one TikTok user said in a since-deleted video posted back in 2020. “I have some ridges, and we’re ballin’ on a budget.”
But what might seem like a quick cosmetic fix can cause lasting harm. “When you file your nails, your nails grow back, but your teeth don’t,” Detroit-based dentist Zainab Mackie told the Washington Post’s Allyson Chiu, who originally reported on the trend. “That outer enamel layer doesn’t grow back. . . . Once it’s gone, that’s it.”
Dental professionals on TikTok have long warned users to step away from the emery boards and see a professional instead. “Don’t get mad at me when your teeth are more sensitive than a two-year-old crying over spilled milk, because I ain’t going to help you,” orthodontist Benjamin Winters (aka “the Bentist”) said to his 5.5 million TikTok followers in a video that went viral.
Wood herself has opened up about her struggle to embrace her teeth when she was growing up. “The Americans can’t believe [my teeth], but they’re all being lovely,” she said on the popular chat show. “It feels so lovely. A real full-circle moment after being bullied for my teeth, forever.”
Maybe there’s a lesson in that.