Lasting impressions

20 August 2012
Volume 28 · Issue 7

The prevailing theme of all the entries to the 2012 Against the Odds Competition was the effect of malocclusion on a person’s self-esteem.  The winners of this year’s contest were announced at British Orthodontic Society’s Annual Conference in September, after all the entries were judged by Tim Newton, professor of psychology as applied to dentistry and head of oral health services research at the King’s College London Dental Institute, Sara Wallis, feature writer of the Daily Mirror, specialist orthodontist Harneet Mangat and consultant orthodontist Alison Williams.   

According to Tim Newton “A comment on someone’s appearance can create a lasting negative impact on how young people feel about themselves, which not only affects their self-esteem but also how they interact with others for years to come”. 

This was certainly the case for the winner of this year’s competition - Linsay Graham.  Growing up, this young woman from West Lothian in Scotland found very little to smile about. Her shy nature and unease about her crooked teeth emerged at an early age, and was exacerbated by the tragic loss of her brother at only 15 years old. This trauma led to the teenager suffering from extreme anxiety, to the extent that she attended a special unit designed to help young people.  Fearful every time she was separated from her family, Linsay’s sense of unrest was intensified by her feeling that everyone she met was talking about her and judging her because of the appearance of her overcrowded and uneven teeth.

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