Woman's Costume Sends Her to Emergency Dentist

Anna Tew certainly had a scary Halloween experience, though not in the way you might think. The Mobile, Ala., woman bought a $3 pair of fake fangs to complete her zombie costume, and she applied them to her teeth using the glue that was included. Little did she know the glue apparently wasn't temporary. After the school bus driver volunteered at a "Haunted Halls" event Friday night, "I tried until it was like 2 o'clock [in the] morning. They wouldn't budge," she tells WKRG. She drank coffee (or "drooled coffee," more accurately, as she tells McClatchy) to see if the hot liquid would melt the adhesive, and she even tried to use wire clippers, all to no avail. By this point she was in pain, but she wasn't sure if the situation merited a trip to the emergency room. After a sleepless night, she ended up at an emergency dentist instead on Saturday.

"He talked about drilling. They had a saw, talked about taking [them] off in sections, and they couldn't numb it because they were scared they would actually pull my teeth out," she recalls to WKRG. "So he went in and picked and pulled and I squealed like a baby and they got them out." She adds to McClatchy, "It was almost 24 hours in my mouth. It was painful, scary, all of the above." A dentist tells Today that veneers, braces, sore gums, sensitive teeth, or teeth that have been recently cleaned can all mess with adhesives, and the American Dental Association says in a statement that "before applying any chemical or appliance to your teeth as part of your Halloween costume—or any time of year—it's important to check with your dentist and make sure it won't negatively impact your oral health." (However, it is totally fine to dress up your chickens.)