A Social Issue with Teeth

Yesterday's "Dear Prudence" advice column over at Slate led off with a dilemma that couldn't help but attract our attention here at Hamlin Dental Group. It's certainly an issue any highly experienced dentist in Van Nuys, or most other parts of the Greater L.A. area would have dealt with fairly often...but which might be fairly rare for the rest of us.

The woman writing in has a new beau who, as always seems to be case with these kind of advice columns, is just about perfect in every way but one: He's missing a number of teeth in the front of his mouth. Not surprisingly, his new girlfriend is nervous about introducing him to her family.

Of course, the first instinct of a dentist in North Hollywood or anywhere else is to point out that missing teeth of this type have potentially serious health consequences, social issues aside. At the same time, it's intriguing to consider just why having a full set of front teeth really is a sort of price of social admission for adults.

As advice columnist Emily Yoffe points out, you've got to be impressed by the "personality chops" of a guy who could overcome such an issue in a romance, because the lack of prominent front teeth -- either natural, bridgework, or prosthetic -- is so rare in middle-class America. It's hard to think of a single physical deficiency that would be as difficult to overcome as that, but somehow, he did. Finding a job, particularly one that involves working with many other people, might be a little bit harder.

There's no getting around the primacy of teeth in the way we look at and, unfairly or not, judge each other. Clearly, if you're missing even one tooth, you want to have that taken care of by a top quality dentist -- whether or not it's in the front of your mouth. If you're not missing a tooth, you want to keep it that way. Your best bet is to find your way to a first-rate dentist in Northridge, Van Nuys, or North Hollywood. Just give Hamlin Dental a call at 888-400-8011.