The last bite

04 January 2010
Volume 26 · Issue 1

Happy New Year

As we plunge optimistically into another New Year, which we here at The Dentist trust will be a happy and healthy one for all our readers, spare a thought for those who are down in the mouth metaphorically. It seems from a New Zealand study that people who have a negative view of the world are more likely to have poor oral health, including decayed or missing teeth.

The low oral health status comes from having dental anxiety, as well as other life-anxieties, causing them to avoid dental treatment and thereby suffer greater treatment needs when they do attend. It may be we can provide a positive health benefit by recognising that patients with high treatment needs might also benefit from a dose of merriment too. Perhaps we can join up with the psychiatrists and devise a scale of mental-and-dental treatment need; the higher the DMF the more pessimistic. Needless to say, the scale could also apply to practitioners treating such patients; which makes complete sense. When they open their mouths and you see a raft of caries how does that make you feel?

 

Feeling the pinch?

I remember being told as a child that people in countries where the future was uncertain liked to have gold in their teeth as it was a portable way of keeping their wealth with them. It always seemed a bit extreme and I couldn’t quite see how it would work in, say, supermarkets. I was only small.

So, imagine my horror when reading that a company in London is going through a boom time being offered gold from people’s teeth. Apparently, with recession causing the price of gold to rise significantly, the rush is on to cash in everything from granny’s partials to crowns, inlays and anything else in between.

At the time of writing current prices indicated that a single gold tooth could be worth as much as £500, depending on weight, size and carat.

 

Old chestnuts

It is reassuring to know that despite it being a new year and a new decade, some of the old stories still linger. Two have caught my eye: a study which claims children who suck dummies for more than three years are more prone to speech problems, and a group from South Africa have once again found that white wine is more acidic and therefore more erosive to teeth than red.

Although the latter researchers point out that eating cheese at the same time helps counter the effect. I think it would be far more interesting to know whether those who have dummies taken away from them as children are more likely to take solace in drinking wine and eating cheese as adults.

 

NOVEMBER WINNER

There is no winner for the November caption competition.