This TikTok Filter Tells You if You Have Yellow Teeth — if You Do, Don’t Panic!
Updated Aug. 26 2020, 6:08 p.m. ET
We all like to think that we do a pretty good job on the personal hygiene front, right? You take a shower, you change your underwear, you brush your teeth — pretty basic stuff. And yet, no matter how well you take care of your body, there is always going to be some bit of media that tells you that you haven’t done enough.
In this case, it’s a viral TikTok trend that purports to tell you whether you have yellow teeth. Presumably, one could just look in the mirror and use their eyeballs to see whether their teeth are yellow, but why do that when there’s a TikTok hack you can use instead?
Here’s how to see if your teeth are yellow on TikTok.
In order to make this TikTok “hack” work, you’re going to need to use the Color Selector filter. If you don’t know how to do that, you’re in luck — we have a whole guide on how to use the Color Selector filter! Once you’ve applied the filter, be sure to select the color yellow. Most people making the “yellow teeth” videos choose to hold or wear something that actually is yellow as a way to prove that they’ve selected the appropriate color on the filter.
The way the filter works is by only showing one specific color in a video or image while the rest is left in grayscale. So, to tell whether your teeth are yellow, you’re just supposed to smile (showing your teeth, obvs) at the camera and see what pops up.
In theory, if your teeth are yellow (or have a yellow undertone), the Color Selector filter will pick up on that and reveal the yellowness to you. If your teeth appear in grayscale like the rest of the footage, congrats! You don’t have yellow teeth. If you do have yellow teeth, though, don’t panic!
Yellow teeth aren’t necessarily unhealthy or less clean than white teeth.
Many of us have a slight (or not-so-slight obsession with having perfectly white teeth, but the truth is that white teeth aren’t necessarily healthier than off-white teeth — and, conversely, teeth that aren’t white aren’t inherently less healthy.
There are two layers to teeth: the enamel and the dentin. Typically, your enamel is a bluish-white color. It’s also usually rather translucent. By comparison, your dentin (the layer below the enamel) is generally more yellow in color. If you see a yellow tint when you look at your teeth (with or without the “help” of TikTok, it could simply be the (natural, normal, healthy) color of your dentin — nothing to freak out about.
Similarly, blazingly white teeth can sometimes be unhealthy. Some people go overboard with whitening procedures in order to get extremely white teeth. If these procedures aren’t carried out by professionals, they could lead to tooth sensitivity and even damage to the roots of their teeth — yikes!
It’s true that yellow teeth could be a sign of staining or improper hygiene. If you’re worried about the state of your teeth, do you know what you should do instead of relying on TikTok to make you feel self-conscious? Go to a dentist! Of course, most people making the yellow teeth TikTok videos are just doing it for fun, not for a dental diagnosis.
Now if you use the purple setting on the Color Selector and your teeth appear to be purple, then you might actually have something to worry about. Otherwise, it’s probably all good.
