Dental hygiene is a growing world, and it’s varied based on place to place. While it might be due to the current costs of everything, or maybe how cultures regard such, there’s a lot that’s different around the world. Here, we’ll go over some of the different dental hygiene habits that those around the world possess.
Cultural Practices
There are different practices of how people clean their teeth throughout the world.
The first are the tools that are used. While we might use a small soft-bristled toothbrush, other cultures don’t necessarily use this. There are twigs, bristles, various feathers, and even porcupine quills that you will start to see that might be different from what you see here.
In India for instance, twigs from cashew, coconut, and also mango trees are used to clean the teeth they have. Ayurvedic medicine encourages people to use neem trees as well to clean their teeth.
Obviously this is very different from the toothbrushes and toothpastes that are out there.
Dental Tool Differences
Speaking of other tooth cleaning tools, there are also big differences in dental tools that you might use. Here in the west, we again have the toothbrushes and toothpastes, but there are also electric toothbrushes and water flossing, which are popularized here in the west. This is because of the innate ability to get rid of plaque, and also keep gum health strong.
In Asian countries though, they use different types of dental tools. We mentioned the twigs, but also their toothpastes are far different. They might use herbal toothpastes that are different from the modern formulas. Some western countries, however, have started to utilize this type of different toothpastes, because it’s seen as less ridden with chemicals.
Economic Differences
The biggest and most apparent problem is dental care access. For instance, South Africa has dental care for those in accessible and urban areas. However, underserved and rural areas don't get much. Egypt as well does not offer dental care due to the lack of affordability, which plays a role in the way the people are there.
For third-world countries, it’s not possible. However, some countries such as Denmark, offer dental care for those under the age of 18 for free.
In the west, we usually have to pay for insurance, but with the new technology and preventative care, there tends to be more opportunities, especially if there are some major problems.
Some areas, due to the lack of information and the prevalence of old tales, end up creating myths for what to do with their teeth. For instance, some countries encourage children to throw their baby teeth on the roof when they come out. certainly different from the tooth fairy, right?
The biggest problem at the moment is to reduce the discrepancy between low-income and higher-income nations. Some doctors are going out there to offer free or reduced dental care for those possible.
What we can Learn from this
There is a lot actually that you can learn.
First, there’s a lot of different cultures that do different things, especially for those that are in different geographical regions.
There is also the difference in how dental care systems are. Some have a full-fledged system that offers free healthcare in some instances. But others don’t have this, such as in Egypt.
We can do more to learn about this, and if possible, if we want to offer dental services, going out to these underdeveloped nations might be the answer that they need to get the dental care that they deserve in the long-term as well.
