Of all the bodily faculties a person should try to preserve, the teeth are perhaps one of the ones we are more aware of. However, there are a lot of people that avoid visiting dental offices despite that awareness. Here are three common excuses and reasons why those excuses aren’t valid:
1. I’m Too Old to Fix My Teeth
Many concerns over undergoing cosmetic dental surgery arise from ignorance over the usefulness of it. They feel that because of some factor or another, their teeth are special and are beyond the help of any dental surgeon’s skill. A common concern is that a person’s teeth are simply too old for repair or are set too firmly in their crookedness. This concern is, fortunately for everyone, completely unfounded. So long as the teeth themselves are healthy, a person’s age is not a limiting factor on who can receive the benefits of cosmetic dental surgery. No matter how old you are, you are still capable of achieving a beautiful smile that shows off equally beautiful, healthy teeth with a little dental work!
2. I Don’t Want Clunky Braces
There is a stigma in society surrounding the stereotypical clunky braces. People think back to the headgear worn by folks in their youth or the metal-mouthed teenager in the movie or cartoon they saw as a child and think about how uncomfortable and embarrassing it would be to have that device used on them. Again, this concern arises mainly from ignorance of the technology. Research into cosmetic dental surgery has been ongoing since the days of the metal headset and have a much wider variety of methods available today ranging from those traditional metal braces to too-colored braces, braces that actually hide behind the teeth, clear aligners, and other such devices. A person’s appearance need not include the use of dental equipment if they don’t want it to, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still receive the benefits of a cosmetic dentist’s equipment!
3. My Teeth are Mostly Fine Anyway
This is another reason people give for balking at a visit to a dentist. Because there is no visible sign of decay or discomfort with a person’s teeth, they feel as though they can go without dental care with impunity. Perhaps they can, but even with a mouth as stalwart as that one, it is still in the best interest of that person to visit a dentist regardless. Many signs of damage to a person’s teeth are subtle enough to go unnoticed by anyone other than a dentist; as discovered in 1960 by Dr. Paul Keyes, much of tooth decay is caused by Streptococcus Mutans, a strain of bacteria that seems to routinely spread across your teeth regardless of what you do. It’s always a good idea to check into the dentist at least once a year to see if there are any issues that would be better addressed early on in order to maintain those healthy teeth, just as about sixty percent of eighteen through twenty four year olds did in 2010. What do you do to take care of your teeth?
Great references here.