MINNEAPOLIS -- For five months after her business opened in 2021, Mirna Lovo sat in her Burnsville, Minnesota, studio stocked with dozens of Swarovski crystals and 18-karat gold charms but no clients and worried her business was a failure.
After paying thousands of dollars for training in teeth whitening and tooth gem application, Lovo was eager for her new venture, Pearly Whites MN, to give her purpose outside of being a stay-at-home mom.
While there are now several businesses in the Twin Cities for tooth gems — small crystals bonded to the enamel of a person's tooth using a similar sealing agent to orthodontists' adhesive for braces — and a growing industry nationally, many tooth-gem artists are still struggling to make a living from the practice.
