Millennials and Dental Care? Why Millennials Care Less About Their Oral Health and How it’s Affecting Them

12 Feb Millennials and Dental Care? Why Millennials Care Less About Their Oral Health and How it’s Affecting Them

Millennials and dental care is an ongoing debate. Millennials seem to get blamed for everything. Whether it being that they’re ruining the napkin industry, soap bars or dating, millennials are always the ones that the fingers are pointed at. But what about their oral health? Unfortunately, the story is very similar to the napkins, soap bars, and dating. Due to their financial instability, millennials are shying away from visiting their dentist. As many of them are still living with their parents and having trouble finding work, millennials lack in health insurance and simply the space to spend money on dentists. The ADA study found that more than 30% of young adults have untreated tooth decay because of these financial reasons. And millennials are three times more likely than children to lack in dental care because only 30% of them are visiting the dentist each year. As for their dental insurance, Business Insider found that the income for millennials was somewhere between $18,000 to $43,000 and therefore is nowhere nearly enough to cover dental insurance. Not to mention that most of the insurance offered does not cover dental.

So how does all of this affect a millennial’s everyday life? Well as tooth decays are more frequent with millennials, they shy away from smiling. The fact that they don’t smile often affects their job search and ability to get hired. As millennials already have a low-income status, it does not help that they are too self-conscious to even smile during their job interviews. The ADA found that 28% of millennials feel that the state of their teeth affects their ability to find a job. Many would assume that millennials simply shy away from the dentist, because they’re scared or simply make up excuses for lack of time due to their 9 to 5 schedule, but are they really to blame? Is it the myth that the Millennials are being lazy and unproductive or simply their inability to make a stable income that affects their visits to the dentist?