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Jewish World Review August 19, 2005 / 14 Av, 5765 That Perfect Smile — Vanity and cosmetic industry save dentistry By Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Not so long, dentistry was a dying industry. Lots of guys with hairy arms
and wristwatches with little to do but drill and fill cavities.
And these holes decreased in number as we added fluoride to the water and
every conceivable type of toothpaste to the medicine cabinet. Moreover,
insurance companies were clamping down on dentists as they were every other
doc.
But then someone realized that a bright smile was as remarkable as a
straightened nose or any other surgically corrected-or-enhanced piece of
anatomy.
All of a sudden, dentistry became the new vanity industry. Everyone had to
have Chicklets teeth—perfectly aligned, well designed, whiter and
brighter.
General dentists metamorphosed into cosmetic dentists.
And thus dentistry solved all of its problems at once. There was instantly
lots to do, prices rose dramatically, and people paid for it themselves,
thus allowing the dentists to avoid the insurance hassle. (Sadly, it's a
fact of life that the American patient will pay far more and complain less
for cosmetic treatment than for life-saving medical or surgical treatment.)
Dental ads with before-and-after mugs appeared everywhere in medical mags
and in local throwaways for bonding, veneers, crowns, two-hour "power"
whitening and invisalign orthodontia.
You, too, can look like a star! No matter how bad your smile or teeth, the
tooth-fairy docs, as promoted by TV shows such as "Extreme Makeover" and
"The Swan," can make you shine!
Have you noticed in the society pictures that everyone has the same
open-mouth, upper-teeth smile?
That's because a favorite cosmetic procedure is the snapping on of six to
eight upper veneers at $2,000 a pop. The socialites want to show off those
upper beauties and thus have trained themselves to lift that upper lip and
hold it.
If you lack megabucks, you can practically do it yourself with
over-the-counter products. Have you been to the drugstore lately? The
dental aisle used to be toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss.
Now those come in dozens of brands, sizes, shapes, colors and stripes. And
now there are also pastes, ultrasonic cleaners, electronic brushes, curved
and rounded tongue scrapers, mouthwashes, brightners, anti-plaque
solutions, cool mint power pack oral care strips, enamel restorers, age defyers, gum
stimulators, whitening strips and peroxide gels. Whiteners come in
15-minute, one-hour, two-hour, 24-hour and two-week varieties.
We haven't spotted any dental drills, lasers or home X-ray machines, but
we're keeping an eye out. We expect some entrepreneur will eventually sell a
dental bit that fits in a home drill. For x-rays you can have your cat walk around
you three times for a home CAT scan!
Take good care of yourself. In this era of expensive out-of-pocket cosmetic
care and stingy managed care, you have no other choice.
Besides, even if spending $10,000 to $20,000 on new teeth leaves you
feeling unhappy, you'll always want to smile!
Editor's Note: Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., drilled out this week's commentary.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple award winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Both JWR contributors are Harvard trained diagnostic radiologists. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
