Megan McCardle argues this is true in the US, I argue Megan spends too much time with middle class folks.
My wife came home from Target in South City today and was commenting on a Bosnian. I tried out good ‘ole American toothism on the story and was completely wrong. The Bosnian had great teeth apparently. However, the South Side Hoosier (St. Louis speak) in front of her in line had daggers for teeth.
So I struck out there. Then I thought about growing up in a trailer court and, well, we don’t really need to discuss how only a few of us in that park had reasonable dental care. It was quite disturbing and this was, in the relative term, a rather nice park.
Then we can discuss the issue of race and class. While middle class African-Americans (and many others) wouldn’t be caught dead with bad dental care, spend some time in North St. Louis and tell me there isn’t a difference in dental care. Perhaps I haven’t spent enough time in New York City, but here in the Midwest, there are significant differences in the level of dental care and class is the key difference.