3B
LIFE/ Cliarlatte $ost
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Jewelry-laden grillz add sparkle, style to smiles
Continued from page 1B
as a hygienist.
Violators may face fines, jail
time or both.
Campbell, whose organiza
tion is charged with enforcing
that law, said the local ven
dors appear to be in violation.
“It’s an illegal practice of
dentistry,” Campbell said.
‘Tou can’t take impressions of
teeth or put anything over
them.”
The issue is consumer safe
ty, she said. At best, grillz are
breeding grounds for bacte
ria, which flourish on metals.
Other consequences include
tooth damage, which could
require extraction or crowns;
the spread of infectious dis
eases; alteration of the proper
occlusion, or bite, which could
cause headaches; and metal
allergies, which could bring
autoimmune disorders such
as lupus.
“I’m worried about every
body,’’Campbell said. “Fm
worried about the person
who’s administering the
treatment. I’m worried about
those who are having it done.
I’m worried about everyone.”
Griffin isn’t worried.
Even though he wears his
grill much of the time, he said
he has never had problems
with it.
“Every day, I take mine,
and there are like gold jewel
ry wipes lliat get tarnish off
the gold,” Griffin said. “You
can even brush them with
toothpaste just like real
teeth. I do that about once a
week to give them an extra
sparkle. My Moms, she don’t
like the gold teeth, because
she said she spent too much
on my real teeth.”
That didn’t stop him from
picking up a new two-tooth
grill at N.Y. Grillz on Friday.
Mathenia has worn one
grill or another for about
three years.
“It’s almost like getting
dressed in the morning,” she
said. “Now that this is my job,
I wear my teeth all the time.”
StiU, most vendors empha
size grillz are for decorative
use only.
“It’s nothing that you want
to wear all the time because
it’s not dental gold,” Theus
said. “That’s why we stress all
the time that its mouth jewel
ry. You wouldn’t want to wear
it in yoiu" mouth aU day every
day hke it’s a retainer or a
piece of dental work that you
could get fi-om an actual den
tist.”
That distinction apparently
is lost on some customers,
especially those who do not
have dental insurance and
cannot afford expensive den
tal procedures.
“We cater to everyone from
missing teeth, chipped teeth,
decayed teeth,” Mathenia
said. “Its cosmetic. Purely
cosmetic.”
City Tbwnsend, 27, a work
er at N.Y. Grillz, remembered
a middle-aged customer who
was missing two of his natur
al teeth. The shop built him a
griU with teeth to replace the
missing ones, and “he’s been
smiling ever since.”
Tfeenagers attraction to
mouth jewelry seems to be
more about pop culture than
dental embarrassments. In
their hit hip-hop song
“Grillz,” Nelly and grill guru
Paul Wall promised to “start
an epidemic,” and it appears
that epidemic is growing.
“This is a new trend,”
Mathenia said, “and it’s going
to be here for a while. It’s
been in Texas, Louisiana,
Cahfomia, New York, New
Jersey for years. And now its
made its way to Oklahoma.”
Bigger car seats, caskets, everything
FILE PHOTO
As Americans get bigger, so do the products that carry
them in this iife and the after iife.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK-From the
cradle to the grave and most
points between, obesity has
found its niche in American
marketing. Make that a wide
berth.
Baby seats, doorways and
caskets are but a few exam
ples fix)m a long list of life’s
accouterments that are get
ting much bigger to accom
modate much bigger people.
There are also vacation
resorts for those embarrassed
to be seen in a bathing suit.
At Freedom Paradise on
Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula,
-the chairs are wider and
without arms, to prevent get
ting stuck; the beds are king-
sized and reinforced, to pre
vent collapsing; and the
beach is private and seclud
ed, to prevent gawking and
staring.
‘You should not be embar
rassed by how big you are,”
said' William Fabrey, whose
online business “Amplestufi”
offers • larger versions of
everyday things from
umbrellas to footstools. ‘You
can’t just yell at someone and
tell them to lose weight.
You’re already dealing with
people who think they have
no worth.
“They still have to sit down
on a chair that doesn’t col
lapse,” he said.
Like others in this small
but growing group of busi
nesses, Fabrey started his
company after discussions
with an overweight friend.
“She was a big woman, and
she said, ‘There’s got to be an
easier way to get through the
day.”’
"lb make living large a little
easier, Fabrey sells lotion
applicators and sponges
attached to handles —
enabling the user to reach aU
parts of the body; handbooks
on hygiene with tips on deal
ing with odor problems, chaf
ing and irritations caused by
skin folds. His business also
provides links to physicians
and medical services.
“We don’t take any position
on whether someone should
lose weight,” Fabrey said.
“That’s up to the person.”
Seemingly every day,
another study appears that
shows the United States is
becoming a coimtry of fat peo
ple. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention, more than 71
percent of men weigh too
much, along with about 61
percent of women and 33 per
cent of children.
As Americans grow in
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