Smile Matters: Dental Appearance and Physical Perception - Essay Sample

Introduction

Patients have different perceptions regarding their dental appearance. An individual having a good smile is usually appreciated by every person. Dental factors play an essential role in an individual's physical perception. One of the significant parts of the body is the face since it shows physical beauty. According to Abidia et al. (2017 p. 172), the attractiveness of the face is determined by the dental appearance. Individual preferences and cultural factors determine the dental appearance and an attractive smile builds both professional and social relations positively. In social media, everyone wants to look attractive, and this makes the dental appearance of an individual very essential, thus, the need for seeking dentist treatment.

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The Role of Social Media in Today's Society and The Patient's Perception of Their Dental Appearance

The role of internet in communication has increased significantly in the last decade, and the effect is apparent on everything from how people do shopping, organize events, interact with peers, and even in the sector of medicine and healthcare (Mesko, 2013). Globally, using the internet in searching for information that is related to health has become a common practice. The media also acts as a watchdog that protects the interest of the public and creating public awareness. The patients who undergo aesthetic procedures can or will post their opinion on social media. The main idea for doing this is making the public aware of the issue. In the current society, social media has made communication among individuals to be easier as one can easily communicate with a person on another continent. Through the different social media platforms, people can share information regarding various issues, including dental health.

The patient uses social media to evaluate cosmetic procedures and treatments. This is done by patients going through social media to discover what they can and cannot do with today's available treatments. Treatment providers will often build a reputation using social media, making it easier to be found by prospective patients. Also, social media platform such as Facebook has a review section in which one can review a product making it easy for people to know how other individuals consider a product. For the patients who are interested in cosmetic procedures or treatment, social media platforms including RealSelf provides vital information in making decisions and giving the providers of cosmetic treatment the chance of expanding practices and building reputations (Schlichte et al., 2015). High online communication through social media among the patients who have gone for dental treatment in changing their dental appearance gives them the opportunity of sharing their experiences.

Patient Use of Social Media in Evaluating Cosmetic Procedures and Treatments

Patients have currently utilized social media in evaluating cosmetic procedures and treatments. The patient will look at social media to discover what they can and cannot do with today's available treatments. Treatment providers will often build a reputation using social media, making it easier to be found by prospective patients. A study conducted by Walker, Krumhuber, Dayan, & Furnham (2019), examines if images exposure depicts enhancements of facial cosmetic increases cosmetic surgery among young women. The study that was conducted among 118 women who are between 18 to 29 years old found that when females view images of their fellow women who have gone through cosmetic enhancements, it affected their cosmetic surgery desire (Walker at al., 2019 p.1). These young women are mainly affected when they spend an essential amount of time in social media, have many followers, and their appearance does not fully satisfy them.

In the current society, physical appearance in young people is more persuasive, and it is mainly dictated by the media like Social Networking Sites. One of the free social networking platforms is Instagram, and it gives users the opportunity of sharing and editing videos and photos. In comparing it to the other SNS like Twitter and Facebook, Instagram enables the users to comment and view pictures posted by the other users (Walker at al., 2019 p.2). Therefore, the physical appearance plays an essential role in depicting if the other social media users view or even comment on their pictures, and this may make one decide to change his or her physical appearance. Findings from different researchers indicate that SNS high usage, especially the ones where pictures are used, may harm some people in relation to psychosocial functioning and body image, including increased anxiety and depression and lowering of self-esteem. Due to increased social media usage, the number of young individuals who go for cosmetic procedures increased to 18.2% in 2017 from 17.2% in 2014 (Walker at al., 2019 p.1). Cosmetic surgery entails restoring, enhancing, and maintaining the physical appearance of an individual through medical and surgical techniques. In research conducted by the British Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons in 2017, 30,000 procedures were initiated to enhance the appearance of people (Walker at al., 2019 p.1).

Social media makes the patient need aesthetic treatment more. Patient satisfaction with different options to achieve the "perfect smile" as most people who have gone through aesthetic treatment have achieved. Indirect or direct restorations can both be very beneficial to patients as it makes them be more confident in themselves and also increases their self-esteem. When Minimally invasive treatments can have more "fall back" options, compared to invasive treatment options, long terms disadvantages in teeth that were previously healthy.

Type of Aesthetic Dental Treatment

The kinds of aesthetic dental treatment include teeth whitening, veneer, crown, and orthodontic treatment. Tooth bleaching, or whitening, is the main cosmetic dental procedure. It entails the doctor evaluating one's smile and teeth in determining if whitening is the best option. On the other hand, a veneer is a good strategy for enhancing shape, changing the color of the teeth not responding to whitening, and closing gaps. At times, this procedure may entail reducing the size of a tooth. Dental crown involves fitting and replacing damaged or decayed tooth, which is above the gum line. It is done by restoring its appearance, size, and shape. A crown helps in keeping weak teeth from cracking or breaking (Lee, 2004, p.770). In orthodontic treatment, teeth are moved or straightened in improving the way they operate and appearance.

Social Media Used as a Strong Marketing Tool

Exposure to ideal facial images in marketing and social media often reduces self-facial satisfaction or negative influence on self-perception. This encourages patients further to seek aesthetic dental treatment. When people see how aesthetic dental treatment has been done on other patients, they will also want to get the services, and this is a good marketing strategy for dental clinics (Mesko, 2013 p.2). It has become easier for different businesses to market through social media since the use of social media has highly increased over the years. Social media is regarded as a feeding ground for the insights of businesses. It is through it that a business or rather a dental clinic, in this case, can gather information regarding its target audience and the best ways of providing its services in ensuring that the needs of the customers are met.

Social Media Impact on Dental Education

Due to social media, patients are potentially more educated on available treatments. The issue, of course, also depends on the quality of the material they are exposed to in the social media. As an example, it could be pointed out that some posts of some treatments may not be a possible treatment for a given condition that a patient may be suffering from, and as a result, it could be really challenging to convince the patient of another type of treatment. It makes individuals be more informed on dental issues. Thus, it is important for patients to get the right information regarding dental health. Currently, an organization can advertise in the different social media platforms, which makes it easier to reach a large group of people and make them informed on the different available treatments on dental health.

Through creating groups in social media platforms, an organization can establish a global classroom in which people have the freedom of learning and discussion beyond the textbooks. The distance between people has been bridged as people from different continents can meet to discuss dental education and stay more informed (Oakley and Spallek, 2012 p. 281). Also, the different social media platforms provide the chance of introducing an academic setting in which lecture notes, assignments, and files are posted. Thus, making social media platforms users' active members of a school community. In the current system, it is challenging not to have an education system in which people do not fit in. Thus, social media highly promotes to have educated users on different issues.

The social media platforms also make people more informed and are able to respond quickly to the market (Oakley and Spallek, 2012). This issue could lead to unrealistic expectations of patients. As a result, it is necessary to increase the quality of communication between all parties involved, dentist and patient should both be informed on diagnostic wax-ups or mockups, dentist and laboratory, and dental photography. It is the photographs posted on social media concerning Aesthetic Dentistry that makes individuals be more interested in the process since their desire is to look better in appearance in the social media platforms as other individuals.

Cosmetic dentistry, especially one that is elective has its risk and benefits. The balance should be found in this risk and benefits. The desire for perfect smile needs to be assessed in regards to significant risks associated with invasive dental procedures such as crowns or veneers. This should be particularly be stressed to a younger population who are more savvy users of social media. Through it, they will know which treatment procedure or method fit their appearance needs. Also, the discussions of how sound tooth tissue removal can have pulpal consequences can play a significant role in decision making.

The Benefits of Social Media Use in Aesthetic Dentistry

Social media offers a large collection of educative material to people, including colleagues, trainees, clinicians, and dentists. It has made it easier for trainers or lecturers to provide and deliver information to the trainees. The dental surgeon may utilize social media in educating individuals regarding health education. Therefore, social media has played an essential role in reducing dental illiteracy among the population, motivates the patients, and offers different health information to the social media community (Oakley and Spallek, 2012). A platform like YouTube is very beneficial in offering a wider audience with dental health education.

Gaining professional cloutIn aesthetic dentistry, dental practitioners can benefit through social media as it enhances their professional clout. It makes it easier for the dentists to reach out to a large number of potential patients. Also, a patient can improve his connection. When the potential patients see that a dentist has conducted Aesthetic Dentistry procedure well in...