Anyone who’s ever had braces (so, just about everyone), knows that getting them off is a BFD. But for one 18-year-old in Scotland, the excitement of finally having perfect teeth turned into a BF nightmare.
Abbie Kilbride decided to celebrate by booking a teeth-whitening treatment with a woman who was recommended to her via Facebook. This woman was not a dentist.
After an hour-long procedure, the teen noticed her lips starting to swell and her mouth starting to go numb. She even had difficulty speaking.
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Despite the fact that Abbie was experiencing textbook symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, the woman not only told her this was totally normal—she actually advised her to put on some lipstick to mask the swelling. What the eff.
In a Facebook post, Abbie explains that she left and took an antihistamine, but the next morning, her lips were swollen together and she was experiencing burning pain and mouth blisters. She says that visits to a general practitioner and a pharmacist were totally unhelpful.
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This is what she looked like five minutes post-treatment:
Here she is the day after:
And these are her lips two days out:
Finally, Abbie got herself to a dental hospital, where the experts were able to identify her condition as a severe allergic reaction accompanied by third degree burns from the whitening treatment. Ouch.
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"I always just assumed the only thing that could really go wrong with teeth whitening was that you don't notice a change in color," she writes on Facebook. "This is definitely something I had never heard of until now, [and I] wouldn't wish my worst enemy to go through this pain."
Abbie’s tale is a cautionary one: Never see anyone other than a certified dental professional for any type of dental treatment.
Macaela MacKenzie is a journalist who writes about women and power. She covers women’s equality through the lenses of sports, wellness, and the gender gap across industries and is the author of MONEY, POWER, RESPECT: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism. Mac was most recently a Senior Editor at Glamour where she directed all health and wellness coverage. Her work has appeared in Elle, Glamour, SELF, Bustle, Marie Claire, Allure, Women's Health, and Forbes among other publications.
