A look at February 2011’s most interesting dental news – featuring: why the recession is deterring people from visiting the dental surgery; how a famous hobo received some new dental work and why ‘LED teeth’ are lighting up Japan
Bieber’s braces
US teen singing star Justin Bieber has been speaking about his fight to straighten out his teeth. The US hero informed Rolling Stone magazine that he has been wearing a set of Invisalign braces on his teeth for the past year.
Bieber said: “The teeth were pointing inwards a little bit so they had to bring them out.”
Hardship equals dental cancellations
UK patients with financial headaches are cancelling important dental appointments.
That is the key discovery of a survey carried out by the British Dental Association (BDA) which suggested that 59 % of dentists have reported patients cancelling appointments.
Even more worryingly, 68 per cent of dentists have reported that patients have delayed treatment.
The BDA believes that these cancellations and deferrals are the reason that one out of every three dentists have noted a rise in the incidents of people needing emergency treatment.
In North Carolina, USA, a legal dispute about whether tanning salons should be permitted to undertake teeth whitening treatments looks set to continue. The legal teams of tanning salons in the state argue that a dentists’ ‘monopoly’ will force the prices up for patients.
But this month the state’s dentists have retaliated by launching a new federal court order. If their action is successful it could mean that only qualified dentists would be permitted to carry out this highly-specialised procedure. Might this have a knock-on effect in Britain?
Vampire dental movie
Northamptonshire health authority has posted a short movie on YouTube which aims to motivate more young people to go to the dentist (40,000 young people in the county haven’t visited the dentist for two years).
The film is called ‘Mouth Wide Open’ and contains a raunchy scene where a vampire’s romantic hopes are scuppered by the foul breath coming from her pointy-toothed mouth.
‘Golden Voice’ gets shiny new teeth
The American vagrant who found stardom through a YouTube clip is now the proud owner of a gleaming set of sparkling new teeth.
Former radio DJ Ted Williams put two decades of homelessness and drug addiction behind him when 20million YouTube viewers watched footage of him speaking by an Ohio roadside. The clip gained the attention of radio stations and film voiceover agents keen to use a ‘golden’ speaking voice which has to be heard to be believed.
The fame resulting from the clip has given him the funds to carry out vital dental work so that he has new teeth to go with his new lifestyle.
Japan’s fluorescent-toothed adolescents
Japanese kids have embraced a fashion for wearing LED inserts on their teeth which light up when they open their mouths to smile. The LED teeth can be activated by remote control, a flick of a button altering the colour of the teeth.
There are as yet no reports of how this new fashion trend could impair dental health.
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