A woman named Alicia — who goes by Princess Glitterhead on social media — has been gaining a lot of attention for sharing her life with snap-in dentures on TikTok:
And she recently received over 10 million views on a video where she challenged other people with dentures to show what they look like with and without them:
Here she is — beautiful with and without!
Other people with dentures quickly started hopping on the trend to share their smiles with and without their dentures, like user @hotmessmamapanda:
You can see more of all the beautiful smiles shared in the trend here!
BuzzFeed spoke to Princess Glitterhead, who opened up about why she had to get dentures. "During my pregnancy, my teeth rapidly began to decay — from the inside out. Both of my eye teeth broke off at the gum line a week or so apart from each other. I remember laying in my yard feeling like my life was over. I would never be respected. I would never be pretty. My husband might leave me. He married me with perfect teeth and within a year I was already missing teeth," she said.
Dental issues can actually be very common during pregnancy. According to the CDC, about 60 to 75% of pregnant people have gingivitis due to changing hormones during pregnancy, and they are also at a higher risk for developing cavities.
For several years, Princess Glitterhead carried on with life missing some of her teeth. "I never smiled. I stopped talking. I hid my pain. I was terrified of the dentist and I know I delayed treatment at times. I neglected myself at times. I couldn’t get ahead of what was happening. I would go get fillings and root canals that would break right out. When I was 24, I had my second daughter, and a lot more dental issues arose," she explained.
"I only had seven natural teeth left on top when I decided to do a full restoration. It took $10,000 and going to the dentist every week for a year straight to finish the work. My insurance wouldn’t cover any of it. They only cover a new partial every eight years and my teeth fell apart faster than that. So, we root canaled and crowned all my remaining upper teeth," she explained.
View this video on YouTube
"I also got two three-piece cemented bridges to fill my eye teeth gaps. I hated that you could see metal when I smiled and that my bridges and crowns had to be made to match my natural teeth. I just had to be able to accept the fact that I wouldn’t have a perfect smile no matter what I paid or had done."