Only 8 percent of people are satisfied with how their teeth look, while 60 percent are mainly concerned with teeth yellowing, a survey released by a Taipei-based dental clinic showed.
Chen Fu-le (陳福樂), a doctor at EG Dental Clinic, said that many people who visited the clinic had tried to brighten their smile by using teeth whitening strips, but complained that the process takes too long.
Citing a previous case of a news anchor who tried relatively cheap and fast teeth whitening strips, Chen said that the anchor later complained that she still had yellow teeth.
Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
A dentist needs time to make a person’s teeth look natural and white, and has to bear in mind whether the teeth look natural, if they reflect light uniformly and how they match the person’s facial features, Chen said.
People should visit dentists to whiten their teeth, Chen said, adding that the best way to maintain teeth health is to visit a dentist regularly and to brush teeth often.
The census, released on Wednesday last week, also found that more than half of respondents had cavities, while one-quarter were missing teeth, he said.
While Taiwanese are not against dental implants, they often balk at the price of such procedures, Chen said.
Missing teeth impede a person’s ability to chew, which could affect their ability to ingest certain types of food, potentially leading to malnutrition, Chen said, adding that missing teeth could also cause the entire row of teeth to become misaligned.
People should regularly visit dentists for checkups and not wait for toothache or other problems before going, he added.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
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