Earning a living and an active social life are key factors in quantifying the quality of life, but for many, there is something getting in the way, their teeth. In America, most people, including employers, make instant judgments based on appearance, including someone’s smile and teeth. “If you want to portray someone as being wicked, they have missing front teeth. If they’re ignorant, they have buck teeth, even from a very early age, we associate how one presents their oral health with all kinds of biases that reflect some of the social biases that we have.” Those views can prevent potential employers from recognizing potential assets, said Lindsey Robinson, a dentist and current president of the California Dental Association.
Dental implants are a great solution to broken or missing teeth. Talk to your Denver periodontal expert to see if dental implants are right for you can improve the quality of life associated with social interaction. Employment opportunities that deal with the public directly, such as customer service, retail, and other good entry level jobs are harder to obtain with poor dental health.
The problem is partly based on appearance, but also on the health effects of poor dental care and gum disease which have been linked to heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Acute dental conditions cost nearly two days of work per year per 100 people in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds. Even employed adults lose more than 164 million hours of work because of oral health problems or dental visits, according to NBC News.
The judgments, an individual makes concerning the personal characteristics of others, can be affected by dental appearance. Established norms for dental and facial appearance do not vary widely among industrialized nations, and extreme deviations are viewed as unacceptable.
Placement of a restoration, which improves dental appearance, results in a positive effect on a patient’s self esteem and quality of life. According to the World Health Organizations definition of quality of life, oral health is not only the absence of gum disease, but also the influence on the subject’s social life and dento-facial self confidence.
In 2013, North Indian University students conducted a survey on dental esthetics and its impact on psychosocial well-being and dental self confidence. Their goal was to evaluate the subjects perceived satisfaction of their dental appearance and to compare it with a various attitudes and practices which may affect social and psychological behavior and dental self confidence. Out of the 426 students who participated in the study 23.9 % of subjects opted to hide their teeth while smiling.
Dental implants can surely increase the satisfaction on person’s social and psychological behavior and dental self confidence. In one study participants associated the presence of decayed and missing teeth with lower levels of social and psychological adjustment. They suggested that individuals, for whom oral health has some importance, are more likely to use dental appearance as a basis for making judgment of psychological adjustment and intellectual competence.
Seeing your periodontal expert and discussing dental implants can greatly alter the state of your well being. Being confident in your dental appearance will alleviate social discomfort, aid in increasing employment opportunities and perhaps even find that special someone!