Nothing to Grin About: Bristol 6th on List of "Worst Teeth" Cities

Known as home to Bristol Motor Speedway and the birthplace of country music, Bristol, Tenn., has now acquired a more dubious distinction – it’s sixth on the list of the “The 14 Worst-Teeth Cities.”

The list was published Aug. 18 in a story about beauty tips and products posted on TotalBeauty.com. The study’s authors cited the region’s high number of smokers and lack of access to dental care as the top two reasons why the city made the list.

“Certainly, there are areas that are worse off than the Tri-Cities,” said Shilo Hilger, the Sullivan County Regional Health Department’s dental director. “But there are a number of people who don’t get dental care because they can’t afford it or they don’t care about it.”

According to a U.S. News and World Report article, 30.5 percent of the Tri-Cities population smokes – giving it the country’s second highest smoking rate. The study’s authors say smoking is one of the leading causes for dental problems along with drinking coffee, soda and red wine.

The region also scored high on the study because 54.8 percent of Tennessee’s adult population has had a permanent tooth pulled, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a third of its residents haven’t seen a dentist in the past year.

Only 41.2 percent of Virginia’s adults have had a permanent tooth pulled and a fourth of its residents haven’t seen a dentist in the past year.

“Everybody gets upset if one of their cities makes our lists,” TotalBeauty.com Senior Editor Kristen Giordani said of the study, which has generated a lot of feedback since last week.

But so far, Giordani said, most of the Web site’s readers have responded well to the study rather than flood the site with negative comments and e-mails like they did in April, when TotalBeauty.com published its list of “The 13 Worst-Hair Cities.”

She said the Web site’s 7 million readers may “take the hair thing a little more personally” than bad dental care. Or, she said, it could be because they are focusing on why the cities made the list rather than being insulted about it.

“A lot of people are saying a lack of good health care was the reason their city made the list,” she said. “Some people talk about a lack of finances as being one of the reasons.”

Giordani has a point. In four of the top five “worst-teeth cities”– Huntington, W.Va., Mobile, Ala., Tulsa, Okla., and Baton Rouge, La. – 15 percent of families live beneath the federal poverty line, according to the census. Only 10.5 percent of the families in Bristol, Tenn., live beneath the poverty line.

But Hilger said this doesn’t mean everyone in the Tri-Cities can afford proper care.

“It’s not cheap to go to the doctor,” Hilger said. People who can’t afford regular checkups often deal with dental problems until they can’t take it anymore, he said, and by then it’s too late to do anything except extract some teeth.

But Hilger also said he sees a second group or people with dental problems – those who could afford to get regular dental check-ups but don’t think doing so is worth the effort. Hilger said these people, most in their 20s to 60s, don’t take care of their teeth because their parents didn’t take care of theirs. People in these groups also say they’re predisposed to dental problems because their parents had bad teeth, so they don’t bother with preventive care.

“Every week, there’s people who use that as an excuse for not taking care of their situation,” Hilger said. “It’s not necessarily bad teeth that are hereditary, it’s bad habits.”

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518

The 14 “Worst-Teeth” Cities
1. Biloxi, Miss.
2. Huntington, W.Va.
3. Mobile, Ala.
4. Tulsa, Okla.
5. Baton Rouge, La.
6. Bristol, Tenn.
7. Greensboro, N.C.
8. Houston, Texas
9. Atlanta, Ga.
10. Las Vegas, Nev.
11. Miami, Fla.
12. St. Louis, Mo.
13. Little Rock, Ark.
14. Alberquerque, N.M.