Was the whole braces-picking-up-radio-stations thing a figment of writers' imaginations back in the day?

Question

I had written "radio stations." Don't know why it was taken out....

Answer 1

Back in my middle school days, I had braces and so did a friend. The school was very close to the local AM radio station tower, and on occasion, we did pick up the radio station. At the close range, the stainless steel bands interacted with plaque in the mouth to form a simple diode radio and when we faced the right direction the current would loop though the cheek muscles to act as a speaker of sorts. It also hurt quite a bit.
Fortunately, the rebar in the walls in the building blocked the signal in most of the school, but in one room, there was a window that faced the tower. We discovered that, by putting a lot of wax (the soft wax the dentist gave us) on the sides of the braces, it would stop the pain and the music.

Answer 2

I work at a large dental insurance company and they have an actual dentist on staff to review claims, x-rays, etc. So, during training, he came in to answer any question from us, no matter how odd. So I asked the radio / fillings (or braces) thing and he said that he's never heard of this happening in his 20 plus years of practicing.

But...

he did work with another dentist that had his car antennia hit a gold crown in his mouth by accident, which caused his radio to short out.

Answer 3

Yes, it's a myth. No documented case has ever occurred. Even Lucille Ball got in on the myth when she claimed that after having braces, she picked up radio signals in japanese and helped to break up and capture a japanese spy ring in the US in ww2. She even went on the talk show circuit with the story to see if people would buy it. They did!

Answer 4

Now you hear about this strange little phenomenon in relation to tooth fillings mainly, rather than braces. I thought it was less a rumour and a myth and more established fact. An aquaintance of mine claims it happened to him!