Don’t let oral hygiene dampen your love life this Valentine’s Day
With February 14th fast approaching, love is in the air and on the minds of many. Despite all best efforts, its difficult to ignore Valentine’s Day, with hearts, chocolates, flowers and dinner reservation prompts popping up via all communication channels.
For many, this is the reminder you never needed that another year is passing as a singleton. It’s all very well for those content couples that get to share a night of romance and adoration looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. But for the single population it’s either drown your sorrows solo, Bridget Jones style or start putting some serious effort into securing a hot date for the day of love.
Finding love in the modern world was already hard enough, but COVID has firmly hammered the final nail into the coffin by forcing us to be more distant than ever. Forced online to minefield of dating platforms, singles are having to navigate fake profiles, catfishing, ghosting and matching before even able to lay eyes in person on their potential beloved.
If this wasn’t already challenging enough, data revealed from our recent poll demonstrates how pool oral hygiene and dental aesthetics are a real turn off on a first date. Dr Andrew Elnazir, our inhouse cosmetic dentist reports: “Our teeth are often one of the first features people notice when we first meet them. Good oral hygiene is not only vital for our health, but it appears it is important for our love lives too.
If you’re serious about finding love this Valentines Day, we suggest getting to your dentist as soon as possible to address any potential oral hygiene deal breakers!
Oral Hygiene Turn Offs
We’ve teamed up with pollsters OnePoll to survey 1,000 people on their toothy turn offs. We sought to find out whether the state of someone’s teeth can really stop a blossoming romance in its tracks. We’ve also asked which particular oral hygiene flaws would be an absolute no-go on a first date.
With such a large population dating online, competition is fierce and no doubt you want to make a great first impression. Don’t let your teeth get in between you and your potential soul mate. Here are our top oral hygiene red flags to address to give yourself the best chance of success this Valentine’s.
Bad Breath
The last thing you want to be doing is saying hello to your new love match with halitosis. According to our findings, two in three people report that bad breath is a total turn-off. Women are more likely to be turned off by bad breath with 72 percent of female respondents confirming their disgusted compared to 58 percent of men. It should go without saying that stinky breath is not going to help your pursuit in finding true love and quite frankly there is no excuse for showing up to a first date with bad breath.
In most cases, a strong oral hygiene routine of regular brushing, flossing and mouthwash should be enough to survive the first encounter, but if you are finding that bad breath is becoming a persistent problem, there maybe an underlying issue that requires medical attention.
Tooth infections, gum disease and cavities can all be major contributors in causing unpleasant mouth odours. Sadly, none of these afflications can be remedied by last minute brushing alone and even over-enthusiastic brushing, chewing gum and mouthwash is likely to disguise the problem for long.
Your best bet is to book in for oral hygiene MOT to avoid any dating disasters.
Stained Teeth
Discoloured, stained and yellowing gnashers are the next major turn off in the teeth department. Some 43 percent said stained would kill a love match at first sight. Pensioners are most likely to snub someone with stained teeth, with 56 percent of the 65 and older age group compared to 33 percent of people aged 35 to 44.
Not only do stained teeth give off the impression that one cares little for their oral hygiene, they also do you no justice in facial maturity. Yellowing teeth are one of the tell-tale signs of ageing and can make even the most youthful facial appearance appear tired and worn.
Thankfully, with the wonders of professional whitening systems it’s easy to restore our teeth to their formal pearly white glory. Whilst over the counter whitening is limited in its colour lifting ability due to the legal restrictions on active ingredients, dentist whitening can work wonders in record time, leaving you with a smile you’ll fall in love with, even if no-one else does!
Book yourself in for whitening, before the season of love begins!
Missing Teeth
Online dating can be deceiving and its relatively easy to hide a gappy grin with carefully posed pictures. However, who wants to be greeted by a toothless smile on a first date? To go one step further, who wants to sit across a dinner table, in the firing line of food from someone who is unable to contain the contents of their mouth due to said lack of teeth?
As we get older, its more and more likely thanks to general wear and tear that we start to lose teeth, however leaving these undesirable gaps will do nothing to help you in the romance arena. 41% of our participants reported that missing teeth are an absolute deal-breaker, so absent teeth can really be the difference between finding ‘The One’ or remaining alone.
The good news is that there is an easy solution for replacing missing teeth. The advances in dental implantology in recent years means that gaps can be filled with fixed, permanent crowns that look, act and feel just like a natural tooth. The difference it can make for your overall appearance and confidence is priceless and an implant could really be the clincher to help you find love at last.
Crooked Teeth
Overcrowding, buck front teeth or an uneven smile are also reported as passion killers in the dental department.
Our survey found that prominent front teeth are high on the turn-off list with 23% reporting their disapproval, while 20% of respondents listed crooked teeth as their cause for concern.
Misaligned teeth can stand out like a sore thumb, especially against facial features which are otherwise perfectly presented. It’s no wonder therefore that more adults than ever are choosing to undergo orthodontic or alignment treatment later in life, now that straightening options are more accessible and efficient than ever.
Whilst more of a time commitment is required to complete an alignment programme and it may not save this particular Valentine’s Day, the results are nevertheless life-changing. You are guaranteed to benefit from the effects of teeth straightening in many aspects of your personal life and self confidence. If it helps it you with your love life in the long run, it’s just another added bonus.
Find out more about Invisalign.
If you are keen to get your teeth into the best shape of your life, whether for this Valentine’s Day or beyond speak to us for a free consultation. We are sure we will get you loving your smile for the long term.
