You’re on campus, and you grab a snack or beverage from one of the vending machines. You try to open your treat, but to avail. At this point, you might consider using your teeth to pry or tear open your bottle or package, but doing so can cause some serious damage to your grill.

Minh Nguyen, cosmetic dentist in Houston, recently wrote an article about the effects of bad oral habits. Nguyen says that opening packages or bottles, cutting through string or snipping tags off of clothing with your teeth can leave small divots on the surface of one or more of your teeth. Such divots may lead to tooth cracks or fractures later on in life. Teeth are not as hard or as resistant to chipping and cracking as you think, Nguyen says.

Also, applying your teeth to any object like the cap of a bottle or the side of a package in an effort to open it can easily damage your gums, Nguyen says. It’s not that your dentists don’t want to see you, he says, but they don’t want to treat you in very preventable situations.

So to keep those pearls looking presentable, don’t use them for a job that a pair of scissors could do better.

VERDICT - BAD FOR YOU