西方特色“牙齒美白癖”

在西方，一口整齊潔白的牙齒不僅代表健康，也是身份的象征。但有些人美白牙齒到了癡狂的地步，連牙醫都受不了了。

For an increasing number of women, whitening their teeth has become an integral part of their beauty routine - as normal as colouring their hair or waxing their legs. In America, sales of tooth whitening products have risen 300% since 1996, and the trend for excessive bleaching has grown so commonplace there that dentists have coined a new word for it - "bleachorexia", meaning an unhealthy obsession with whitening one's teeth.

對于越來越多的女性來說，美白牙齒已經變成她們美容護理項目中不可分割的一部分，跟染發或者除腿毛一樣稀松平常。在美國，牙齒美白產品的銷量從1996年到現在增長了300%。過度漂白牙齒的風潮已經如此平常，以至于牙醫們為這種現象造了一個新詞——“牙齒美白癖”，意思是對牙齒美白的一種不健康的癡迷。

Symptoms include burning gums, tooth infection and the conviction that, no matter how much a tooth has been whitened, it could be paler still.

牙齒美白癖的癥狀包括牙齦火辣辣地痛、牙齒感染以及堅信無論牙齒多么白都可以再白一點。

（中國日報網英語點津 江巍 ）