dental health in Japan

[Hai_hai]

How important is dental health in modern Japan?
I see all these ko-gal amateur models who are cute and in their 20's but alot of them have a bad set of teeth.
Is Japan behind on dental health compared to the US? I know they have toothbrushes and toothpaste, do they emphasize teeth cleanings, dental prophylaxis, twice a year?

[nodachi]

Ignoring issues about personal appearence which have shady, scheauvanistic, or not nice conotations, which I am not directing towards you, but I won't go anywhere near there...

As for dental care... They don't have flouride in their water, which severely contributes to poor teeth. My experience with their tooth paste, at least the ones I used, was that they were not quite so good as what I use here. MAybe different chemical mixes... who knows... That is your health update for today... based on my personal experience alone with no scientific backing... you have been warned...

[Tako-kun]

I've got all you need to know about Japanese Dental care right here in one pic... Kitty-chan caps! :D

[Hai_hai]

In a lot of photos, the top set of teeth were misaligned, particularly the incisors, even though the teeth were white. It's like a lot of them didn't get the second set of baby teeth extracted during pre-teen years, thus causing the top row (or bottom row) of teeth to grow in crooked. Maybe tooth extraction is considered a no-no in Japanese dental community? If these women are in their twenties, that means dental care maybe wasn't widely available in Japan in the 1980s? I doubt it since they are a very modern society and affluent with the economic boom of the 70s and 80s.
I take it that these ko-gal models are a small-subset of Japanese society, and the majority of Japanese of the same age have good teeth, as seen in some ko-gal models.
So sorry to have offended you nodachi.

Now, about the British and dental care...

[IRJ]

Bad teeth are just not an issue in a lot of places outside North America.

I saw alot of bad teeth in Japan and Hong Kong, but not in mainland China which I though was a bit weird considering the living standards there are so much lower. I heard from some people in HK and China that it has something to do with people's diets, as well as what dentists are trained to look for in their patients.

Britain was bad too, but continental Europe didn't seem so bad. Not sure what the pattern is here, I think it's just cultural attitudes.

[Hai_hai]

Originally posted by IRJ
...Not sure what the pattern is here, I think it's just cultural attitudes...

Bad teeth can be traced to two things. Personal dental hygeine (which can be attributed to cultural attitudes) and available professional dental care.
People who aren't poor but don't take care of their own teeth and gums can ruin what they have.
The poor who have less access to dental care, dental care products, or haven't been instructed about how to maintain personal dental hygiene in their youth usually end up as adults with extremely bad teeth. I'm talking about the USA here, not middle-of-nowhere Africa. It's quite awful. Some dentists choose to volunteer their time and services to provide free dental care to the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of various inner-cities. Although the cost of dental care throughout childhood could pay for maxillofacial surgery to correct a really bad set of teeth in an adult, the psychological damage of having to go through one's pre-teen and teen years with crooked teeth can be highly damaging to that person's positive self-esteem.

Well, I've bored everyone. Please, brush and floss your teeth regularly. :)

[Keith Hong]

As I understand it, Japan has a national(mandatory) health insurance that covers everything from bridgework to orthodontics(kinda like the UK's HMS used to be). The problem with completely government-subsidized-regulated health care is that while everyone may benefit, the quality suffers(although there are some practitioners who work in the private sector that are just phenomenal - think BUPA). Many dentists end up capping teeth when a filling(amalgam - mercury) would be enough(less hassle, higher set fee) - I've seen a number of colleagues do it here in Korea. Add to it Japan's fear of pollution("ittai-ittai" disease, etc.), fluoridation of drinking water is not a popular option, despite its proven safety record.
Dietary change over the past twenty, thirty years has contributed to the increase in the incidence of caries, as well. Rural countries, without access to candy, sugar and soda pops, show surprisingly low caries incidence despite the lack of available dental care. In developing countries, however, access to such cariogenic food, coupled with sub-par public oral heath awareness leads to increased occurene of oral disesase, including tooth decay.
Another thing, a high-canine(crooked teeth) is considered cute and pretty by some. In fact, we were told there are orthodontists in Japan who specialize in arranging teeth to be crooked. When I was receiving my training at the university hospital, we used wonder like crazy at the mechanics of orthodontically creating crooked teeth(awesomely difficult technically) after eruption of the permanent dentition.
Also, Westernization of lifestyle in the past century has contributed to basically narrowing and elongating the Asian face. As such, the prevalence of malocclusion(crooked teeth) has increased significantly in Korea over the last thirty years.

[samurai999]

ughh.. Producing crooked teeth on purpose? Yuck. I see some of these girls and they look really cute at first glance. Then, they smile. :(

Tim