Occurred on May 26, 2016 / Highland, Utah, USA
Info From Licensor: This video was made by Matthew Watts, the creator of the Fleeting Films channels, and the ‘Discount Dentist’ series on YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat Discover. Fleeting Films is a TikTokker that originally grew a following on YouTube and TikTok when millions discovered his video titled “Man Leaves Retainer in for Five Years,” a video showing a man allegedly removing an old, crusty, retainer for the first time in 5 years. The video was originally filmed May 26, 2016 as a Facebook Live video on the “Fleeting Films” Facebook page, and picked up traction when the creator uploaded the video to the “Fleeting Films” YouTube channel in 2017, where it quickly passed 5 million views. The video took off again once it was uploaded to TikTok in August of 2020, where it gained 15 million views overnight, and was shared and featured on the pages of many well known dentists and orthodontists on the app. With the video gaining traction, Fleeting Films Tik Tok followers requested that he bleach the retainer and show the results in a video. It quickly became a popular trend, where Fleeting Films would respond daily to different Tik Tok comments requesting that the retainer be cleaned with all kinds of random household products, including Draino, Bleach, Ketchup, DishSoap, Detergent, Hydrogen Peroxide, Dental tools, and more. The videos can still be seen on the “@FleetingFilms” Tik Tok channel under the hashtag “#RetainerGuy,” which has since gained over 400 million views.
Following the “Retainer Cleaning” trend, Fleeting Films became most well known for putting realistic looking human teeth on foods, and performing dental, orthodontic, and surgical work that his followers request. His “Fruit Surgery” videos can be found on YouTube and Tik Tok under the hashtag “#DiscountDentist” and “#FoodDentist”