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Sonia Haria investigates the ‘Zoom boom’ in cosmetic dentistry
It’s known as the ‘Zoom boom’. In the past year, while many industries suffered, the demand for cosmetic dentistry has risen, particularly among the over-40s.
Valued at £2.2 billion, the British cosmetic-dentistry industry is thriving. According to the British Beauty Council, one in 10 of us has had a treatment such as veneers, bonding or teeth-whitening in the past 12 months, putting to bed the old myth that Britons don’t look after their teeth. And the market researchers Credence Research predict an eight per cent annual rise in the number of treatments in the UK, compared with a five per cent average increase globally.
Getting your teeth ‘done’ has been popular for a few years, but why the marked rise now? Experts are putting it down, in part, to the national lockdowns last year. The psychologist Dr Martina Paglia observes that post-lockdown, there was a real drive for men and women to invest in themselves – in what is now known as the ‘Zoom boom’. ‘Video calls have meant that we’ve had increased exposure to the facial features we do not like, and we aren’t able to ‘filter’ like we can on social-media sites. So as we slowly rebuild a normal way of life and return to normal modes of social interaction, we want to present ourselves in a good light after months of not seeing anyone properly.’ A recent study by presentation-design agency Buffalo 7 found that 73 per cent of its 2,066 respondents experienced ‘Zoom anxiety’, preferring a phone call over video interaction. There was also a 180 per cent increase in Google searches for ‘Zoom anxiety’ in the UK between March and November last year.
The award-winning cosmetic dentist Dr Rhona Eskander has never been busier. Although her Chelsea clinic was popular pre-covid, she says the past six months have seen new levels of demand for appointments (she’s fully booked until March). A year ago, the bulk of her client base was under-35 millennials looking for an Instagram-worthy smile, but in the past six months she has seen a 52 per cent increase in over-40s booking in for teeth ‘tweakments’ compared to the previous 12 months. And that’s not all that has changed: more men are coming in for cosmetic dental work than ever before.
‘My patients came out of lockdown one and two last year thinking life is too short to live with a smile they don’t like,’ she explains. ‘Hours and hours sat in front of video calls has made people really think about their appearance, and being confronted with their reflection over Zoom – how they move their face, smile and talk, rather than just seeing a static image of themselves in a mirror.’
The main driver for better-looking teeth is the dramatically youthful effect they can have on the face. ‘As we get older our teeth get shorter and more yellow, so by restoring their colour, position and shape, you can easily take 10 years off your appearance,’ says Eskander. ‘Men and women are recognising how anti-ageing cosmetic dentistry can be, with more women opting for teeth tweakments over Botox and fillers.’
So is this a case of 40-somethings catching up with the selfie generation? Dr Patrick Tarrant, who has a practice on Harley Street in London, thinks so. He has also witnessed a marked uptake in cosmetic dental treatments in middle and older age groups, and he found that those who came in for consultations at the beginning of last year were desperate to book in as soon as his clinic reopened following lockdown. ‘I have heard comments like, “I’ve probably got 20 years left in me, I want to look my best,” so I think midlifers are now moving towards the self-awareness seen in the millennial generation. Covid has crystallised people’s perception of their life, both in terms of quantity and quality.’ He is now twice as busy as this time last year, with a male/female ratio of 50:50; it was 65:35 in favour of women a year ago.
Part of the appeal is that teeth treatments have changed considerably over the past 10 years. ‘Men and women in their late 40s, 50s and beyond, who have previously been scared of the dentist, are more relaxed about coming in to have cosmetic treatments because they are so much less invasive than they used to be,’ notes the cosmetic dentist Dr Martina Hodgson. There was a time when cosmetic dental work meant that teeth were filed down to pegs to have veneers placed on, in a one-size-fits-all approach, which isn’t the case any more. Many of these mod
‘Along with midlifers, more men are coming in for cosmetic dental work than ever before’
ern professional treatments come with a hefty price tag, but for the middle-aged market it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Hodgson has also witnessed a ‘phenomenal demand’ for dental treatments in the 40-plus market, which her clients are undertaking after the cancelled holidays, weddings and reduced socialising of 2020.
It’s also about appearance: old-style veneers, which are perfectly white and straight, may still be the ideal for many 20-something reality-tv stars, but look obviously ‘done’. Most of Eskander’s clients, she says, want ‘imperfectly perfect’ teeth, rather than big, shiny Hollywood smiles like those of Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta-jones. She likens the trend for getting more natural-looking teeth to the surge in women asking to have their visible face and lip filler dissolved. The tide has turned on obviouslooking ‘work’. ‘I’m seeing more clients who want their old-fashioned composite veneers taken down or off because they look too bulky or fake,’ she says. Although we know that straighter, whiter teeth can lift the complexion and knock years off, so, too, can wider teeth. This is where buccal corridors – the dark tunnels that show between the corner of your lips and the side of your teeth as you smile – come into