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Thailand, the land of metal smiles |
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| On Bangkok’s elevated Sky train network, a 14-year-old girl
with shining hair, flawless skin and a crisp white shirt smiles beautifully
to reveal a mouthful of blue metal, perfectly matching her pleated skirt. This is the latest fad among adolescents in the capital of the ”Land of Smiles”: false orthodontic braces fitted with coloured rings to match their outfits or their mood for the day. Passport to fashion The Thai teenage craze has transformed the once-hated devices into essential pieces of jewellery for the hip, despite health professionals’ warnings over their dangers. At markets where girls and Thailand’s famed lady boys, or transsexuals, go browsing, the stalls bristle with devices to suit every taste and budget. “The coloured rings are very cute,” said Jessica, a 14-year-old schoolgirl with an orange smile. She paid 1,000 baht (25 dollars) for her braces. Fifty baht (1.25 dollars) buys a simple wire set decorated with green, pink or yellow beads that can be self-fitted by curling the two ends of the wires around the molars. For more than 4,000 baht, one can fix 10 colour rings on both the upper and lower sets of teeth. Others come complete with a false palate -- in discreet pale pink, of course -- or even sporting cartoon characters. “A stall sprung up near my school with a batch of false braces going for 50 baht. All the stock ran out in a few hours, and when it returned its prices had doubled,” said high-school student Pink on an Internet forum on the subject. The forum posts some 150 messages received over the past three months as girls desperately try to find out about this passport to fashion. The fitting of real dental braces complete with follow up treatment with an orthodontist over several years costs between 10,000 and 50,000 baht, or sometimes more, according to the national federation of orthodontists. Such expenses, beyond the reach of most Thais, are not covered by health insurance. Preechaya, 15, wearing a real medical brace with green and orange rings, had hers made by an orthodontist because of problems with her teeth. “The colours make it pretty. But if I had the choice, I would prefer not to wear it. Some fake ones are dirty because girls exchange them between themselves,” she told AFP. Opening the door to viruses… Some teenagers with real dental problems are attaching the fake braces, either because of a lack of information or lack of access to proper treatment. “I needed braces to fix my teeth but I can only spend 50 baht. What can I do?” despaired one participant in the forum. Dentists therefore propose two services: genuine braces for patients needing them and who can afford them and fake ones for fashion. The fakes do not affect the position of the teeth but the pressure they exert on the girls’ jaws make them awkward and they can be painful, said Dr Somchai Satravaha, president-elect of Thailand’s orthodontist association. But some girls even chose to wear fake braces to make it painful to eat and achieve their goal of losing weight, according to one of the respondents to the forum. The dental committee, an independent body charged with advising the government on oral health, says the false braces can be dangerous in other ways. “Fixing the braces for the patient can be regarded as illegal medical practice”. Dentists doing it “are qualified to do so, but untrained people can be prosecuted,” explained the committee’s secretary-general Dr Paisal Kangwolkit. “On the other hand, we have no means available for preventing young people from affixing them themselves,” he said. Dr Somchai warns of health dangers. “If they do not sterilize the various instruments being used to fix the braces, it could possibly open the door to viruses such as hepatitis B,” she said. In the long term, the effects of saliva may also erode the false braces, with potentially harmful metals being absorbed by the wearer. The dental committee is carrying out medical analysis to find out the composition of these materials and to determine which pose true health risks, said Dr Paisal. |
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