GAP Australasian-Dentist-May June 2019

Category 128 AustrAlAsiAn Dentist Jade Richardson By Jade Richardson t he newspaper arrives. if you have ever seen a copy of The West Australian, you will know that this is not a herald of anything much like good news. the newspaper is generally agreed to be a standard part of life as usual, and even welcomed into the home, into the heart of the family, as a barer of true facts and useful insights about the real world. But is it? Page 3 shows an alarming looking woman in hot pants and boob tube, and not much else, complaining that she was knocked back from having a beer at a pub because her outfit was deemed too skimpy. she doesn’t look too happy about it. “i never thought i would be discriminated against for being a woman and wearing exercise clothes,” she huffs. rough-looking footy players mentoring Aussies on how to overcome adversity and looking like they have certainly experienced a lot of it, even though they’re not yet 35, take up other pages, sharing space with smug-looking wine makers, leaning on barrels, wearing Blundstones and full page ads for designer homes, and bikini girls selling insurance and alarming medical images promoting dental implants and terrifying tales of elderly Aussies being fleeced of their safety and security by just about everybody. there’s battlers struggling, footy players struggling, dentally impaired people suffering, and lots of encouragement to buy property as a way to avoid the rising tide of engulfing struggle sure to keep sucking away at things … and then there’s the dentists. West Australian dentists are worrying that things are not well in the world too, and whether they’re part of the problem. As a compassionate observer, i would have to say that well, possibly, using life-sized full frontal images of invasive dental surgery in total colour advertisements in a weekend paper may not be adding, overall, to feelings of joy and optimism in the world. But apparently, using full sets of perfect, glittery white teeth in advertising and influencer material is leading to all kinds of trouble as well. the page 29 headline yells, “11-Year- Olds Begging for White teeth”. Perth dentists are appealing for common sense, and for caution, the article continues, as rising numbers of primary school children are pressuring their parents for tooth whitening procedures that are unsafe for developing mouths. But the kids don’t care. instagram is being blamed, but television, magazines, movies and newspapers (like the one i am presently observing, cautiously) are overwhelmingly pushing, celebrating, filtering for white, flashy teeth as part of being popular, successful, glamorous, of not being at risk of struggling, basically, and pre-teens are naturally wanting in on anything that can elevate their chances of being happy. Or at least of being seen to be! even if it means they might undermine their health, destroy realIty BItes Baby vampires at dawn their teeth and wage war against family and medical providers, as the article warns. A Perth dentist sighs, “it’s all of the pressure from social media. Kids are seeing in instagram how wonderful it is to whiten your teeth. they’ve got all these filters for their photos and to make their teeth look better.” she says the overwhelming social messaging to children is causing a new market in use of supermarket whitening products, and professional treatments which are unsafe at their age, and leading to new psychological issues for dentists to deal with in the chair. “using these products will set [children] up for really poor tooth structure in their future,” she cautions. And warns that dentists need to educate families about this problem, as well as be prepared to give counseling chair-side to children experiencing psychological distress about their healthy, natural teeth. it makes sense. it’s perfectly logical and easy to understand. Yes, using corrosive materials on young teeth probably won’t work out well in the future; i can see that. And yes, it’s easy to understand the dentist’s metaphor about how teeth are like pumpkins, and how if you rub away at pumpkin skin it will get thinner and thinner until, eventually, the flesh of the pumpkin will show through. it’s a suitably alarming image. nobody wants to walk around with a face full of exposed pumpkin flesh. nobody wants a smile like a Halloween pumpkin. But i have to wonder if there’s more to the problem than just fashion and social influences. Haven’t we all been selling the idea of a perfect white smile as being a sign of happiness and beauty? Aren’t we all selling idealized and often impossible images of what a normal, socially desirable human being ought to look like, and can look like – with products and treatments and ever increasing ‘aesthetic’ and ‘cosmetic’ surgeries and intervensions? isn’t it true that dentistry is very much cross pollinating medical care with beauty treatments as we bridge medical dentistry with offerings of tooth whitening options, and our menus expand to include botox, skin lasering and other medical spa services? How does this all work? Are dentists about to walk head on into an ethical dilemma? Or is this just a normal part of learning to surf the swells of culture change and technology? What messaging are we really giving out, as writers and doctors and nurses and readers of everyday newspapers? And do we need to rethink, just even a tiny bit, all of our parts in creating a society where 11-year-olds look in the mirror and feel ashamed, or inadequate, or inspired to purchase beauty products that could undermine their health? And are they willing to listen to us anyway? When we try to tell them that perhaps it’s OK to be wonky, even a bit yellowish in the teeth – while all our marketing material celebrates the Perfect smile and not the natural one? u