Jerusalem – As the 12-year-old girl steps out of the treatment room at the Chabad dental clinic in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood, she asks: “How long will it take?” The answer she receives from the female dentist, concerning how long the thin metal wires encircling her teeth will have to stay on is apparently satisfactory; the girl gives a little smile.
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Tuesdays is orthodontics day, for girls only, at this clinic for disadvantaged residents, in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. Girls aged 10 or 11 flock there: How their teeth look is a very important aesthetic issue for them. Indeed, within just a few years they will begin getting offers for potential husbands.
Considering the high cost of the treatment and the large number of children in these religious families, orthodontics cannot be taken for granted. Today – as Chabad dental clinic director Rachel Donat relates, and as emerges from conversations with mothers – the accepted practice for ultra-Orthodox preteens who want to have their teeth straightened is to save up money from babysitting jobs.
Bh I always thought that was an issue
Since when do heimeshe men have such great teeth that they would have the chutzpah to make an issue out of a prospective kalah’s crooked teeth??
Since when is orthodontics “dental hygiene”? The article, typical of Ha’aretz anti-orthodox propaganda, sounds like “we’re finally gonna get those filthy chareidim to brush their teeth.” (You know, to help those vermin from spreading diseases.)
Dentistry and Orthodontics in America is such a Yiddish business. I can’t understand why in Eretz Yisrael there isn’t a huge profession? Oh. I forgot — Socialism. Nu. So that is why Obama wants to destroy the health system in the USA. He wants to destroy the source of Yiddish wealth in America — the Yiddish Doctor and Dentist. And hurt our teeth and health at the same time. Gevald !
good grief! who wrote this?! no, aesthetics or getting a “husband” is not the primary reason to get braces. people need orthodontics for malocclusions or overcrowding which can wear away at bone structure and make their teeth fall out sooner. orthodontics is often medically indicated for teeth that cannot eurupt properly and can cause major infections when the surrounding gum attachments are weakened and suseptible to all sorts of compromise and decay.