When you don't have scissors handy and your fingers are too oily to be useful, you use your teeth to open packages that are otherwise labeled "easy open." This wild, even primitive, gesture might be titillating in movies, but in reality, it's far less appealing.
Opening packets with your teeth is a bad idea.
You're eager to try those delicious, sour candies in their kawaii shapes, or those new tartiflette-flavored chips that have been making your mouth water ever since you bought them. Except, well, the packaging is resisting you, and contrary to what's written on the box, it's a test of patience, or even a full-blown puzzle worthy of an escape room. You pull on it with your fingers until you tear off a nail and end up with sore muscles, but the package doesn't even have a scratch. And unlike your dad, who never went anywhere without his signature pocketknife, you don't carry a Swiss Army knife. So, as a last resort, you unleash your teeth like a formidable weapon and tear the bag open with a single snap of your jaw.
If your dentist saw you in action, he'd probably faint. Even if your teeth are as sharp as kitchen scissors, they're not fangs. As the Red Maple Dental website points out, "biting and tearing plastic with your teeth can chip, fracture, or break one or more of your teeth." This habit, always portrayed in a rather suggestive way in romance novels, might get you out of a jam now and then. However, it can damage your enamel, the protective barrier of your teeth, and send you straight to the dentist—a place you've been avoiding ever since your first cavity was treated.
You are also likely to injure yourself, especially your gums, which are particularly sensitive areas. Your teeth are neither tools nor a makeshift solution. “A crack in the tooth enamel represents an entry point for bacteria to reach other parts of the tooth, which significantly increases the risk of cavities and infection,” reminds the Prisma Dentistes clinic.
Packaging, veritable breeding grounds for microbes
Whether it's a bag of cashews, leftover sauce from your last-minute fast-food meal, or instant coffee pods from the office, they all have one thing in common: they're almost as dirty as the toilet bowl. Remember, many people handle them before they end up in your kitchen or lunchbox.
They pass through several hands, not always very clean, travel along checkout conveyor belts, and even end up in the bottom of your shopping cart… They may have even fallen on the floor during their journey. And when you consider that more than 70% of supermarket trolleys carry fecal bacteria, you don't need a microscope. Despite current standards, this packaging isn't sterilized. It therefore harbors bacteria invisible to the naked eye, but which won't go unnoticed in your body. Beyond ingesting microplastics, you're also exposing yourself to particularly virulent bacteria like Escherichia coli.
Fast-food sauce packets are the worst example
You may have already had to use your teeth to open a single-use ketchup or mayonnaise packet from a fast-food restaurant. And you'd better have a strong immune system to survive that experience unscathed. These mini packets will almost certainly put you off forever. First of all, they have a greasy texture, which makes opening them even more difficult.
Thrown into your paper bags in the rush of ordering, they pass through hands that aren't always gloved. As they prepare your order, the servers touch banknotes, coins, and used trays. Needless to say, the risk of contamination is higher.
These bags, often made of multi-layered plastic, are designed to withstand… sometimes a little too well against human force, but not necessarily against bacteria. Packed in boxes, stored at room temperature, and handled in a continuous stream, they accumulate a rather large collection of unwanted microbes. The result: by putting them in your mouth to “save time,” you turn a simple snack into a microbiological lottery.
And if the temptation really is too strong, just remember this: your teeth aren't multi-functional package openers. They're already busy enough surviving meals, snacks, and sugary drinks without adding a commando mission against stubborn plastic.
