WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2006
Thursday Edition: Dental Grillz Become Flashy Fashion Fad/Trend
The Associated Press picks up on an interesting fad/trend:
The hip-hop culture
is sinking its teeth into a new fashion trend. Individual gold-capped
teeth have given way to grills and fronts -- removable mouthpieces made
of gold, platinum or silver and sometimes studded with jewels. (See photo.)
The trend has been boosted by hip-hop icons such as Nelly and rappers like Paul Wall.
After Nelly's 2005 hit "Grillz," which glorifies the trend, young people all over scrambled to wrap their chops around a shiny grill.
The story continues:
Matthew Messina, a ... dentist and ADA spokesman, said improper use and care of fronts can result in serious gum disease or cavities.
Messina
has no problem with the aesthetic aspect of a grill, but he warns of
problems down the road if they are not kept clean or if they are bonded
to natural teeth.
Snap-on grills
do not fit particularly well in and around the teeth, he said, allowing
food and bacteria to get trapped underneath, which can cause cavities
or other problems like gum disease or gum recession.
Other dangers include allergic reactions to cheap metals and adverse reactions to jewelry cleaners, which can burn gums, Messina said.
"The really wealthy who have them made of high-quality precious metals, you will have less allergic reaction," Messina
said. "Someone going more of a cut-rate route, where they are using
lesser metals, we see a lot more metal-allergic reaction to more-base
metals."
Messina
said some vendors may be unaware that in some states ... taking an
impression of someone's mouth is considered dentistry, which requires a
license.
Florida and Ohio are two such states.
Here's another story about grills from the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
Take a look at some top-of-the-line models from Paul Wall in Houston.
The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger notes that grill shops are opening in Mississippi. Dentists are warning about the possible problems there, too:
[Sharon] Blount,
33, is among a growing number of women and teenage girls who want
grillz, [Rebecca] Kim, [whose family owns NY Grillz in Jackson] said.
"Girls get it top and bottom," she said.
Blount, a cook at a
local restaurant, has a gold grill on the top and bottom. On the top,
she sports what is called an open-face design that resembles
gold-framed windows around her front teeth. Her top and bottom grillz
cost her about $200 each.
"It's just something to get your shine on. I basically wear mine on the weekend if I go out," she said.
Blount has worn a
permanent gold tooth with an "S" inscribed in it for 12 years and said
she loves the flexibility of wearing a grill.
"You can take them out and put them in," she said.
Some customers as
young as 9 sport a single gold cap or a three-teeth grill, Kim said,
and some older customers just want to cover a missing tooth with some
flair.
"It's not just for
the youngsters; there's a lot of white folks. It's not just a black
thing," she said. Kim said she also has Hispanic customers.
To make a grill, a
client has to sit for about a minute while a mold is being made of
their teeth. To produce one grill, it takes about six hours, Kim said.
Kim recommends cleaning grillz three to four times a week with jewelry cleaner.
"You have to rinse it out completely," she said.
Although Kim said she advises customers to clean their grillz regularly, there are some who don't heed her advice.
One customer who came
in for the store's deep-cleaning service hadn't cleaned his grill in
two months, Kim said. The stench was so bad, "we had to open all the
doors," she said.
That type of neglect is what concerns Dr. Ailean Stingley.
"I don't advocate (grillz)," said Stingley... "If
they're going to wear it, they need to be aware of proper health
maintenance procedures (like) coming in for regular dental checkups,
making sure the gums are healthy."
If food collects underneath the grill, it could cause tooth decay, Stingley said. "It affects the bite."
The Greenville (S.C.) News reported a few years ago:
[T]he South Carolina Board of Dentistry thinks
people should be worried. The board is warning of infections, broken
teeth and other health risks associated with mouth jewelry that often
can have lifelong consequences.
Oral jewelry is an
increasingly popular trend among young people who want to make a social
or fashion statement or simply share an experience with friends.
Examples include tongue, cheek and lip rings as well as ornamental caps
known as grills.
Over time, said Dr.
Joy Jordan, president of the National Dental Association, the piercing
hole can enlarge, requiring even bigger tongue rings that can cause
more damage. Another threat, she said, are the gold and silver grillz
sometimes fashioned into shapes like skulls or studded with diamonds,
worn over the teeth. Poorly fitting grills can lead to tooth decay and
worse.
"Food will attach to them, causing bacteria to lodge," she said, "and can lead to periodontal disease and bone loss."
Greenville dentist Dr. Harry Bobotis
estimates that 15 to 20 percent of his teenage and young adult patients
wear some type of oral or facial jewelry. Sometimes, they suffer
inflammation and infection of the tongue from the piercing, and
cavities from wearing grills. Often, he said, their teeth and fillings
are fractured and chipped from the constant pounding they get from the
tongue ring.
"It's like a little
silver wrecking ball," Bobotis said, "(banging) against the backs of
the top teeth and sometimes the bottom teeth."
71 Percent of Men, 62 Percent of Women Overweight
The findings come from
the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey, which collects data on a sample of about
5,000 people each year. See results here.
Sex for Rent Posted on Web Site
The Associated Press reports that the ubiquitous Craigslist
is being used by landlords who are willing to accept sex instead of money for
rent. Considering how many cities have Craigslist postings, it might
be worth a local look. The AP says:
In Atlanta, an online ad offers a room in exchange for "sex and light office duty." In Los Angeles, a one-bedroom pool house is free "to a girl that is skilled and willing." And in New York City, a $700-a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex.
On the widely used Web site Craigslist.org, some landlords and
apartment dwellers seeking roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu
of rent. [...]
Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner in New York,
said investigators have found that the Craigslist ads are frequently
"little more than a form of voyeurism that didn't result in an actual
exchange of sex for rent."
Craigslist provides mostly free classifieds for apartments, used
cars and just about everything else in more than 200 cities in 35
countries.
It is unclear how much success people have had with their
rent-for-sex ads. The Associated Press e-mailed more than two-dozen
other people who placed ads, but most declined to be interviewed.
Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist, said the company
forbids ads that break the law, but his staff of 19 can't police all
postings.
Children Prostitutes
Reuters is carrying a story that addresses the sad reality of children who run away from home. The story says:
Up to 90 percent of
runaways are believed to end up as prostitutes, with a third lured into
prostitution within 48 hours. Some are sold into sexual slavery by
their parents, according to a 2005 study by the Atlanta Women's Agenda. [PDF]
Some get seduced by recruiters. Pimps use handsome young men and sometimes girls as fronts.
"A 16-year-old
controlling a group of girls will not face the same penalties an adult
would receive," said Patricia Crone, director of the Office of Juvenile Justice Demonstration Project.
The story adds:
The FBI has identified 14 U.S. cities as centers for the sexual exploitation of children. In addition to Atlanta, they are Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Minneapolis; New York; San Diego; San Francisco; St. Louis; Tampa, [Fla.]; and Washington, D.C.
In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study.
Most youths caught up in the sex trade are runaways, like Brittany [a girl featured in the story] whose 19-year-old "rescuers" soon demanded a return on their investment.
How to Succeed in Network News
After more than 30 years at CBS News, Bob Schieffer attended a Poynter Institute seminar for TV anchors. A short time later, he was named CBS Evening News anchor. The new anchor for CBS Evening news, Katie Couric,
is also a Poynter graduate. She attended Poynter just before she was
named "Today" show host. Cause and effect? You decide. Of course,
it could be the Florida sun-soaked glow that graduates get while they are here that makes them so lovely on camera.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium
of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of
Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the
information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed
and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.Posted at 6:58:15 PM
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