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.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS