It looks so simple and it is in our nature to want to save money and think we can do anything by ourselves. Oddly it is a trend to think that specialized training in a particular field can somehow be learned by watching or reading something.
Plumbers, electricians, teachers, mechanics, architects, and dentists (just to name a few) all have training that you can’t learn by a video. Every job has trained and learned skills that a person not doing that job could never know…as one makes the job look so easy, right? Sure, you can try doing what you see, but there are critical factors that can be the difference between the light working for 30 years or not. Or your plumbing clogging up more often or not. From your teeth functioning well or not. Things you can’t know are happening until years later when the results of the quick do it yourself show up. We have schools and training because you can’t know everything.
Tic Toc and YouTube are making things seem easy without all actually having the skill set or knowledge to do something with the excellence of a trained person.
Here are some examples from dentistry.
- Influencers instruct followers how to whiten their teeth at home and bypass those dental fees. But have you had your teeth cleaned, do you need fillings?? This can be a problem for the person whitening and limit the success.
- Some show the popular trend of “banding” which involves using rubber bands to get perfectly aligned teeth. That is just false.. physics tells us so. It might close a space but you could lose a tooth from this which is a catastrophic and expensive consequence of doing what you see on a video.
- Tooth aligners purchased online without a trained professional can make teeth a bit straighter, but they also can cause tooth misalignment, jaw joint noise and discomfort. You might end up with an open bite and there is no one that is responsible for the outcome.
There are dangers lurking behind these videos. Health decisions based on a 30-second social media video is a never a good idea.
Often a photo and video filter created a warped perception of how normal teeth looked, particularly when it comes to whiteness.
We all know infomercials that are hugely misleading about the product and yet we believe random people that are profiting….without the training to actually give sound advice. This is an unregulated area; it is not governed by any health act or governing board.