A FEW YEARS back, an Irish dental clinic conducted a survey that revealed that one third of us are walking around with broken or missing teeth. 

It doesn’t help the stereotype that there are so many Irish people walking around like Shane MacGowan, but at the same time, it’s not really important what anybody else thinks of your teeth, as long as you’re happy with them. (Although there were some other, more concerning findings in surveys of Irish dental health around that time too – a third of people said they were too lazy to brush their teeth twice a day – so, y’know, keeping going to the dentist.) 

Although there have not been any major new studies to see how people’s attitudes towards their dental health has changed in recent years, it seems that people are definitely more interested in their mouths than they were a few years back.

Last weekend, we ran a poll and it turns out that most people who participated in it have whitened their teeth, or want to try it some time in the future. A month ago, we published some info you should keep in mind if you’re debating whether to get braces or Invisalign and we received a considerable number of emails from people asking for further info before making the commitment to orthodontics.

It seems like people are more conscious of their dental health and the way their teeth look than ever before, which could have something to do with influencers on Instagram pushing whitening treatments, or well-known reality TV personalities going around with huge, perfect, white teeth. Of course teeth whitening is pretty low risk and fairly inexpensive nowadays, but it got us wondering how many people have committed to a more expensive and long term method of cosmetic dentistry – braces.

Have you ever had braces for cosmetic reasons?

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