Elderly make beeline for that 'perfect' smile

Elderly make beeline for that 'perfect' smile
MARCH 08, 2005
VIVIDHA KAUL
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
NEW DELHI: It's not just the aspiring Miss Indias who are opting for an all-new and improved smile. With both time and money to spare, more and more grandmas and grandpas are warming up to the idea of a redesigned smile.
"They all want youthful, younger smiles and they are at a stage in their lives when they have the money and the time for meticulous restoration work on their teeth," says Dr Mahesh Verma, principal and head of department of prosthodontics at Maulana Azad Dental College and Hospital.
So stained, deformed teeth are out and so are dentures, considered an essential accessory for the elderly a few years back. Implants which are essentially titanium screws fixed into your jaw bone are in. "In the last year itself, I would say that the number of people going in for implants has gone up by as much as 50%. Nobody wants to be in a situation where they sneeze and their dentures fall into the next personÇƒÙs plate," says Dr Ashish Kakkar, senior consultant, department of dental surgery at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.
So what if you could buy yourself a car with the kind of money you spend on these implants? Both permanent as well as removable dentures can be fixed on these implants. A complete new set of teeth which are removable, can set you back by about Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 while the permanent ones cost a whopping Rs 2-Rs 2.5 lakh.
Also, with better awareness and improved techniques, more and more people are coming forward to get their teeth preserved these days. So the ones who do not need implants opt for bleaching, and even increasing the height of the teeth.
"Attrition over the years causes the height of the teeth to decrease, we increase that, helping them chew their food better. We also make them whiter and do away with any gum disease that they may have," said Dr Verma.
Not only does it help them smile better, it also helps them live a healthier life.
"Oral health has off late been linked to a whole lot of other diseases as well. While earlier, no one may have bothered to go in for so many sittings and spend so much on their teeth, people are now waking up to the idea," said Ram Pal Singh, a south Delhi businessman who just got himself a whole new set of teeth.
And besides increasing their confidence and their health, this trend has also meant better communication for the elderly. "Whatever problems they may have had earlier due to missing teeth are also solved thus," said Dr Verma.