Even with braces, you can still look your best!

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Your teeth needs alignment. Your dentist has recommended braces. Suddenly, there is a rush of blood to your face. How would you look to your friends with braces on? You don’t want to appear like a grumpy old woman because your teeth has to be straightened so you can chew properly, or speak clearly. Take heart! You are not the only one for whom braces has been recommended and you’ll never have to hide your teeth while speaking because you can wear braces and still look cute. Read my lips!

A decorated dental brace Photo credit: Flickr.com

Braces are dental devices used to fasten teeth that have problems with alignment. They might be giving you problems with chewing, speaking or they are not perfectly straight and you want that defect corrected. Braces whether metallic, ceramic or the invisible lingual braces have been demonstrated to have helped many adolescents and adults to regain their confidence and self-esteem while still looking cute and attractive even though they have something stuck up on their tooth.

It takes some time to get used to wearing an appliance on your mouth. To beginner users, they can really be bothersome and make you self-conscious. Not only that, taking care of them after a meal can be a chore. If you don’t, food might get in between the wires and can result in microbial infection.

Braces come in different prices. Some are cheap while others are expensive. Ask your dentist to recommend one that is fitting for your budget. If you cannot pay for them and your dentist says you really need to have them, you can apply for insurance from an insurance company.

What is invisalign?

According to a survey, one in four persons who are fitted with braces, are adults. These users have testified to the fact that wearing braces that are invisible makes one more attractive than wearing metallic or stainless steel braces. Because they are conscious of how they look, many adolescents have resorted to putting on braces with colorings or having stars painted on them.

If you want invisible attractive braces, or you’d like braces that do not use wires but plastic, there is a new innovative technology of non-traditional braces called invisalign. These braces make you believe that you don’t have any appliance on. Furthermore, they make you more attractive and have been attested to by many persons to be more favored over metallic or ceramic braces. What these all means is that with invisalign line of braces, you do not have to worry about your looks, you do not have to spend more money to enhance your braces, and your gums will not be irritated by any wires or steel. Invisalign braces use plastic aligners to align your teeth in a more comfortable and aesthetic manner.

It will do you a lot of good to wear braces if your dentist recommends one. You do not have to worry about how your face will turn out. Whether you have a natural beautiful teeth or one that has been aligned with braces, you can still look your best. If your teeth are not well aligned, they become unstable and that is what will call for worry.

Using invisalign will not replace the fact that you must still have to go for regular checkups. Only that, your visits to the dentist will be less. Ensure that your follow your dentist’s instructions to the letter, especially to the cleaning of your braces after meals, so bacteria do not grow on them. No brace, no matter how state of the art, can replace your dentist.

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Encouraging abuse could prove harmful in the future

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If your man abuses you and you keep it to yourself, you might be encouraging him to do violence on you in the future?

Do you know that?

Whatever relationship one keeps, one has to be careful. This problem does not only affect married couples – it also affects teens. While adults might report only one abusive partner, teens have been known to hide the abuse they receive from their boyfriends and partners until it becomes the second or third partner that is following the trend.

The message is clear: hiding psychological or sexual abuse because you love your boyfriend and do not want the relationship to break up could be harmful to you. Sometimes, it starts with his yelling at you or insulting you for very little or minor offenses. When such becomes frequent, particularly when the man is trying to control you through such behavior, then you have to tread cautiously. It is imperative that you start doing something about it. Why not talk with him about how you feel? If you desire to keep a relationship, communication is one of the keys to a lasting relationship. Talk with him about your feelings. Tell him what he is doing that is hurting you. Communicating your fears and feelings openly shows that you want the relationship to work. If you don’t trust him again, tell him. Do not sneak on him, reading his emails or Facebook messages behind his back. If he finds out, he could end up abusing you more. You could end up blaming yourself for the abuse when he should have realized that he has a problem.

If you want to know the signs to look out for that your boyfriend or girlfriend seeks to control you, then this article should be for you.

Does he demand for sex when both of you are not ready for it? If that is the reason for his yelling at you, calling you names, explain why both of you should stay clear of sex. Don’t make the mistake of making excuses for him whenever he hits you because you refused to give in. He could employ other means, like accusing you of talking to other men and using him as an emotional buffer. He is only looking for your weaknesses, so that he can be able to control you and get his way.

Your body is precious. Do not hurt yourself because you want to please your boyfriend or girlfriend. If you have tried to be patient and trusting but the abuse still continues, it might be time for you to move on. Sometimes, it might be appropriate to report the abuse. This will help both of you. Speak to your parents about it if you love him.

Learn to say no to an abusive relationship before you hurt yourself. You could damage your health, both emotionally and physically, trying to make up for an abusive relationships.

Take control of your life, even if you are young!

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Be careful. That joke could send you to troubled waters

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How would you feel if someone joked about the victims of the January Boko Haram killings at Adamawa? If you were a southerner, you would have felt distraught, or sent the comedian a harshly worded email.

And so would I have.

Jokes were meant to expose the frailty of the human condition. Comedians who are not careful with their trade know they can land in murky waters if they approach a topic that irritates or angers the audience. So, they tend to stick to harmless subjects, which some psychologist has termed benign violations theory.

According to the benign violations theory, a wrongdoing can be placed in a humorous situation when it becomes harmless or okay to the listeners. According to Peter McGraw, who runs the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder, two criteria that can make a wrong okay or seemingly harmless are: it should have some psychological distance from the hearers and the distance it has to the listener should be equal to the severity of the wrongdoing.

I was going through my Facebook updates recently and I saw a caricature strip of our former president, Obasanjo. The strip made you wonder what sort of children he wanted to be godfather to: intelligent children or barbaric children? The message was surreptitious. I did not like it. So would I not if that strip was also a joke. Many Nigerians would have felt insulted.

A good comedian who does not want to annoy his listeners, could take the following advice while crafting his jokes:

Let us say the subject is a Nigerian president and a violation that was committed by this president.

First, instead of a Nigerian president whom we associate with and can relate to easily, like Obasanjo, he’d have made puns on that president through his butler, or a staff of his household whom we do not know or cannot easily associate with, thereby creating that psychological distance. Point number one: a good comedian respects the distance in relationship.

Secondly, instead of a president whom we all love and want to emulate, he would have targeted his jokes on the butler or driver of a president whom we have either forgotten (e.g Shagari) or do not like and want to rubbish easily (e.g Abacha). Point number two: a good comedian respects the distance in time of his subjects.

Thirdly, instead of a president whom the public have direct information about, let it be the butler or driver of a president whom the public would prefer not have direct contact with. Point number three: a good comedian creates a distance in space in his choice of subjects.

Lastly, instead of using a topic that is real to his listeners, not to irritate their sensibilities, he would use a topic that is imaginary or hypothetical. That is the last point good comedians use to achieve their aim.

Scenario: To illustrate the lasciviousness of Abacha while in office, a good comedian could create something thus: (mind you, I’m no comedian)

Abacha’s driver: Oga, this one wey your face dey ugly like this, wetin happen?

Abacha: My brother, I have killed all my enemies and there is no one to kill again. Soyinka has run away. Saro Wiwa is dead. Tinubu has escaped. Diya…Life is boring.

Abacha’s driver: Oga, you never start at all!. You don go Afghanistan? There are beautiful babes, black babes, white babes; you can kill whenever and however. After that, you fit hang the head inside your eyeglass.

Did the joke make you laugh?

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