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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS | |
YOUR PEARLY WHITES
How often you visit a dentist can predict your socio-economic status and
how you will vote
September 27, 2011
 Your smile says a lot about you.
Because the appearance of those teeth is usually an indicator of how often you see a dentist and how often you do see that enamel driller and puller tells oodles about your behavior -- such as how you’ll probably vote, what social class you are in, what profession, your education level and how much money you make.
In a fascinating piece of research Richard Florida, Senior Editor at The Atlanticmagazine and Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a colleague Charlotta Mellander, decided to delve deeper into some data released this month by the Gallup Organization that, “Shows a stark new axis of socioeconomic cleavage: those who regularly go to the dentist, and those who do not.”
They took a close look at a state-by-state pattern, comparing the Gallup-Healthways data on dentist visits to key economic, social, demographic, and political features.
And although Florida says up front these are only associations and cannot be presumed to have a causal relationship, he adds, “The strength of the correlations is astounding—among the highest we have seen in any analysis of this sort we have undertaken.”
What did they find?
Dental visits closely track a person’s socioeconomic class. The more money you have the more you can afford to see a dentist. If you are poor, your teeth are the last things you worry about or invest in.
Dental visits are thus much higher in states where a higher percentage of the workforce is employed in knowledge, professional, and creative work (the “creative class”).
Ditto for the share of college graduates, a measure of the knowledge base and human capital in a state. The correlation between dental visits and college grads is even higher.
On the flip side, visits to the dentist are negatively associated with the “working class” share of a state’s workforce.
Income inequality has worsened over the past couple of decades, with the rich getting richer and the share of Americans in poverty increasing substantially so they found that income inequality also factors into oral health.
Dental visits are fewer in states with higher levels of income inequality.
If you smoke and are obese, chances are you have dental problems and you do not go to the dentist very often.
And one of the most amazing parts of the research is that oral health is a predictor of how people will vote.
“Oral health also reflects the underlying divide between Red and Blue America,” says Florida.
Oral health, they found, is positively associated with states that voted for Obama for President 2008 –- meaning if you had good teeth, good oral health and went to the dentist when you should you voted for Obama.
Conversely if you had bad oral health and did not go to the dentist very often you were more likely you voted for John McCain and more than likely lived in a state that voted overwhelmingly for John McCain for President.
Check put the full report here
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