• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Would you rather have work-free flawless hair or teeth?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Eidan

Member
Yeah...People are severely over-estimating the cost of braces and dental work in general. It ain't cheap, but they're relatively cheap in comparison to hair transplants and all that garbage. Plus you can always just get dentures if it all goes to hell. The thing that makes teeth cost a lot is when you get them whitened like a movie-star. That will kill your wallet, but that wasn't the OP's idea.

If you have insurance w/ dental, then all the teeth problems become even cheaper. A $25 co-pay twice a year, plus the occasional filling. Not a problem.

Let's assume you have super screwed up teeth though. There's basically only two things you need: fillings (or crowns) and braces. If you don't have any teeth, get fakes or dentures. Based on this link the fillings will cost you about ~$100 each. Crowns are ~$300 each, and a root canal is about ~$200. The average human has 30 teeth, so if you had to get a filling in each one that's $3000 without insurance. Braces cost around $5000, but let's say $7000 after including a bunch of check-ups. So if you have atrocious teeth today, you can get to "problem-free" teeth with less than $10000. That's a hell of deal. Again, this is all without insurance.

Granted none of this accounts for if you have really really really bad teeth. But that's not common at all. Teeth are pretty resilient, and it takes a lot of poor hygiene or drug use to really screw them up to the point of no return. Again though, just get dentures for ~$1000.

Now for hair, that's expensive as hell. You're looking at $5000 - $15000 for a hair replacement that may not even work. It's also never going to be covered by your insurance.

Moral of the story? Yeah teeth can get pretty messed up and hurt bad, but dentists are good at their job and teeth are sort of "figured out". They're cheap to replace and fix - even cheaper to keep clean and healthy. Hair is much more variable and random.

Fillings are per surface, not per tooth. So that's five per tooth.
 

Sakura

Member
Teeth for sure. I've already had to get a couple root canals. Shit is expensive and sucks.
Hair, sure it would be nice to have a full beautiful head of hair, but I already shave my head.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Bad teeth/dental care can lead to issues that can straight up kill you. A bad hair day on the other hand isn't going to end your life.
 

Eidan

Member
Yeah but are your teeth currently all jacked up? It's not an all or nothing proposition.

That's five per tooth if you have cavitated lesions on every surface of your tooth...

That's pretty bad. Like if you live in any area with fluoridated water you have to be pretty aggressive in putting off a trip to the dentist to get to that point.

This is like me posting all of the most expensive hair products and saying "you need to go through a bottle of each of these a week to keep your hair looking nice!"

I brush and floss twice every day, and have two fillings on multiple teeth. Just runs in my family.

And it's me illustrating a worst case scenario with your teeth. A case where you have no choice but to fork over a lot of money if you want to not just maintain a nice smile, but your health. What's the worst case scenario when you lose your hair? You shave it, exercise, and start dressing better?
 

farisr

Member
Teeth for sure. I don't have issues with either right now, but if someone were to give me the choice of being bald or have perfect teeth/oral hygiene without any effort, I'd go bald right away.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
From a vanity standpoint: hair. It's easy enough to take care of my teeth, you don't wake up with bed-teeth, but your hair can be permanently fucked up for an entire day if you sleep weird.

Economically speaking, perfect teeth is clearly the sounder choice. But like I said, it's easy enough to take care of your teeth.
 

Eidan

Member
Do you brush well? I'm not saying it's BS, but I've never heard of any hereditary conditions that make teeth extra susceptible to decay and needing of fillings

Brush well? Hm, floss first, up and down, toward the gum, rinse with mouth wash. Once in the morning, then again at night before bed.

Have two fillings on two back molars.

Some people have softer enamel than others. And that's largely determined by your genetic makeup. I thought that was common knowledge? Or have my dentists been lying to me for years?
 

eso76

Member
No, you shouldn't get any of those lol. They're all much rarer than going bald and for sure less likely to pop up than a bad hair day.

I also think youre underestimating how bad going bald is. You have to be super buff and have facial hair to offset it, and even then...

Yes, they are rarer. They are also a lot worse.
That you have to either be buff or have great hair to be attractive is something that just isn't true in my experience.

Care to cite some examples or non-care related teeth issues that effect your life more permanently than baldness?

only if you care enough to go look for Genetic dental abnormalities or even what something as simple as malocclusion does to your body, to your spine in the long run.

You can fix that; sure, my dentist said my malocclusion / overbite could easily be fixed by sawing my jaw and putting some distancers to make it grow 1cm longer as well as wearing braces and a metal plaque at all times to widen the palate.
I was 12 and that was the last time i went to a dentist's :p

ok, i do once in a couple years for cleaning, but that's it.

I am super lucky; i never really took care of my teeth besides simple brushing (and not nearly as much as suggested, think once in a day vs the recommended 3) and never got cavities or other issues (besides wisdom teeth growing in random directions and having one extra tooth sitting somewhere underneath) and at 40 my hair is showing little or no sign of thinning.

It's true i am super scared of dentists. I can handle physical pain just fine, but can barely tolerate cleaning and the idea of having one tooth extracted or drilled ? i would rather go bald right now if i could choose.
 

LeleSocho

Banned
I have decent teeth but if i could have the peace of mind of not having to worry about them my whole life even when i'm old it would be great.
Hair is a non issue for me, i enjoy stuff like going to the barber and find it extremely relaxing and if with time i have to go bald i have no problem with it.

Hair is just cosmetic after all while teeth are fundamental for the well being of a person.
 
teeth.

never bad breath, always perfectly (natural) white? No pain, cavities, etc for the rest of my life? Peridontal disease goes by the wayside?

Sign me the fuck up.
 

Raiden

Banned
I would give anything for a nice head of hair and im not even bald yet.

Just my hair growing thinner is driving me insane.
 

Breads

Banned
Yooooooooooo

You got me. You already know if you have problems that bad though. Misalignment doesn't just pop up yeah? Like that's a good reason somebody would pick teeth, but I still think these "don't you know how important teeth are?" people are being completely ridiculous. Even paying for the occasional chipped tooth is better than having to wake up/buy hair products/get hair cuts/risk going bald.
It kind of did pop up.

First started out with 25 years of nothing. Then floss started get shredded. Then stuck. Then popcorn shells and pieces of meat that get so wedged in it causes inflammation. Then bite starts to noticably shift putting all of the pressure on one molar above all else. That molar weakens unbeknownst to you and then it goes on from there.

Add later onset allergies causing sinuses to close up when sleeping which snowballs into bruxism /clenching that you dont know about until its too late. Slowly over time teeth can chip away or weaken in those conditions with no visible signs of an impending weakness or breaks until it just happens.

There is only so much a dentist can predict or prevent and I feel like you are underestimating the cost to actually keep all of this in check. I would trade my good hair for you apparently good teeth.
 

Sakura

Member
Do you brush well? I'm not saying it's BS, but I've never heard of any hereditary conditions that make teeth extra susceptible to decay and needing of fillings

I dunno. Some people have worse skin health than others, etc I don't see why some people couldn't have weaker teeth. I've also heard that if you don't take care of your teeth properly when you are a kid, your adult teeth when they come in will be weaker, but not sure if that's true.
 

Eidan

Member
That hair situation is clearly much worse.

We'll just have to agree to disagree there. I understand that for some people their hair is a far more integral element to their self-confidence than my hair is to mine. I definitely understand how upsetting losing one's hair can be, but I've just seen too many examples guys looking good and being desired while having bald heads.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
The only correct answer is teeth.

I'm a guy. My hair takes, at most, 5min to get done, like most guys. It's not a major concern.
 

PaulBizkit

Member
Well, I always had good teeth, so I'll take the hair (which i'm kind of lacking).

If taking one would deteriorate the other, IN THAT CASE, teeth.
 

Cerato

Neo Member
If you're missing teeth, I assume you're a crackhead.

If you're missing hair, I assume you're missing hair.
 

Drinkel

Member
As someone whos hair is long enough that I accidentally sit on it sometimes, definitely hair. Just the amount of time I spend brushing it these days is getting to me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom