Women and teeth clamping to achieve ideal weight

MPHO TLALE
Correspondent | Monday November 1, 2010 00:00

This has now led to young women taking drastic measures to control their weight, the latest trend in Botswana being teeth clamping.

Besides that, women are also resorting to unhealthy ways of weight control such as self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, skipping meals, excessive exercise and fasting.   Teeth clamping is supposed to take six weeks and involves a process that leaves the teeth locked. This method ensures the women lose weight quickly but the effects are that throughout the clamping one cannot brush their teeth, give a wide smile or even speak properly.Only liquids can be consumed throughout this period.

What happens then after the quick drastic weight loss? Does one start a healthy diet plan or go back to old eating habits? Unfortunately many resort to their old eating habits rather than pursuing a healthy diet plan to maintain the weight.

Evelyn Mokgadi is a young woman who has gone through the process of clamping her teeth. She dismisses the procedure as a waste of money.

Apart from stating that clamping teeth is not good as she had her mouth closed for a period of six weeks she also says that she piled up the kilos she had lost. Evelyn states that exercise is the way to go and that now she climbs up Kgale hill to lose weight and for toning. To top it all it is absolutely free.

An internet article entitled Beauty and Body Image in the Media, states that it is disturbing that the media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. The article continues to state that messages about thinness, dieting and beauty always  tell 'ordinary'  women that they are always in need of change and that the female body is an object to be perfected.

Advertising is the major culprit for promoting a negative body image amongst women because most if not all adverts are designed in a way that enables them to sell and make profit rather than promote health and wellness.

Body image is a term used to describe how one feels about their body. Although it is usually about physical appearance, it includes the psychological feelings that a person has about their body in general.

The issue of negative body image plays a major role as women tend to carry the burden of a negative body image which can eventually lead to depression.

This affects women worldwide and Batswana are no exception. In cities the issue of negative body image is high as girls are trying to lose weight  especially in Gaborone citing that 'ba tshwara figure ya Gaborone', directly translating to attaining a Gaborone figure. What is a Gaborone figure? Who determines what a Gaborone figure should look like? However women tend to overlook that they come in different shapes and sizes because of their different genes.

The reason why we each have an identity should be enough to allow everyone to embrace their individuality. It is up to an individual, in this case women to make peace with what they have and work with it.

Upon writing this article I used the social network site Facebook to find out the viewpoints of people concerning teeth clamping. Most of the people who commented were women and no one was for teeth clamping.

In a Facebook response Nonofo Makabe states that she is against teeth clamping. She says there is no point in losing weight drastically and then gaining it back by bad eating habits.

She also states that starving oneself to lose weight is neither healthy nor sexy.

Khumo Seamogano also shares Nonofo's sentiments and says that women should rather focus on their inner beauty and try to radiate it to the outside. The only man who commented, Innocent Puso says that he does not recommend teeth clamping because it is unhygienic but said that women should exercise and avoid clamping their teeth.