Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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In Reply to: British posted by Andy Goenner on December 15, 1998 at 21:35:41:
I have to question the legitimacy of this issue being posted on a Renaissance webpage a tad, but I think it's an interesting issue so I'll gladly throw in my two cents. A couple of the other responses to this have said that other countries don't have flouride in their water, and that is true, unless everyone that's ever said that was lying to me. It's not just Europe, or the British, but I think the fascination is that although maybe some other countries don't have people with the best teeth, you kind of shrug that off, becasue most of them can't afford it. If you see pictures of someone from India or Africa, or somewhere where the majority of people are poor, they will most likely have bad teeth, but we immediately link that to their poverty, and don't think anything more about it. Our stereotype of the British, and Europe in general, is that they are as wealthy, or wealthier than us, and if they have bad teeth, we wonder why they don't shell out a few grand to get them fixed. First of all, having no flouride in their water is part of it, second of all, oral hygeine just isn't as important in almost any other part of the world as it is here. I'd ahve to do a bit more research, but I don't think many countries have people that go to the dentist twice a year. Another intersting thing, and I don't think this applies to the Brits, but many cultures think that putting the same brush in your mouth twice a day for a few months and leaving it in a drawer in between is just gross. We stumbled uopn this subject in a class in high school somehow, and it lingers in my memory. Has anyone ever thougt of that? It is kind of disgusting. Anyway, that's my take on the oral hygeine issue. It's a step away from Machiaveeli and Da Vinci, but it's an intersting topic and worthy of discussion.