It was the first time in weeks Anthoula Papazoi had cooked meat. She had stewed the cut of beef, donated by a friend, on a low flame all morning. But now the casserole sat untouched, as Papazoi fretted about her 13-year-old daughter Nikoleta’s tooth. micro motors australia
The teenager – long black hair, electric-blue nail polish – emerged from the bedroom in shorts and a tank top. She had slept most of the day and was late for an appointment for a long overdue root canal procedure on a bottom front tooth.
“Do we have painkillers?” she asked, rummaging through a kitchen cabinet. “I’m going crazy.”
“No, we don’t. Go get ready for the dentist,” Papazoi said.
“Do we have milk?” Nikoleta asked.
She pulled at a piece of masking tape that held closed the refrigerator door, reached in and grabbed a carton of milk. In a tall white mug she mixed the milk with chocolate powder and five spoonfuls of sugar, and then slumped into a chair.Is The Oral Portable X-Ray Machine Convenient? for more information.
“Get up and go,” her mother ordered.
In few places are the wounds of Greece’s economic depression more evident than in the mouths of the nation’s children. By most indicators of dental health, Greece is one of the unhealthiest places in Europe. The number of Greeks 16 years or older reporting unmet dental care needs was 10.6 percent in 2013, according to Europe’s statistical agency Eurostat. That compares to a European Union average of 7.9 percent.
Dental problems are particularly acute among children, according to a recent survey by the Hellenic Dental Federation, a supervisory body. And the financial crisis has made things worse. In the decade up to 2014, 60 percent of all dental problems in 15-year-olds were left untreated for at least a year, up from 44 percent in the previous decade. Almost all the five-year-olds surveyed – 86.8 percent – suffered dental problems that had not been treated, the survey found. dental lab equipment
“Teeth are unfortunately considered a luxury,” said Niki Diamanti, a dentist who works at Hatzikosta Hospital, one of two public hospitals in the northwestern town of Ioannina. “If, five years ago, people went to the dentist once a year, now they go every five years.”
In Greece’s case, the situation is remarkable because the dental problems are not primarily caused by changes in daily oral hygiene, experts say. Rather, children are developing tooth diseases for reasons related to the country’s six-year economic depression portable dental unit.