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50% of kids will have an 'oral injury' from sports - scaremongering

  • 10-08-2007 4:28pm
    #1
    yaledo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 249 ✭✭


    Just now on the radio, some very well spoken guy was explaining that 50% of children experience an 'oral injury' due to sports at some point.
    He concludes from this that all children should be required to wear 'custom fitted gumshields' for sporting activities.

    I am immediately suspicious of the motives of anybody who manipulates statistics dishonestly like this, and preys on people's basest fears & emotional responses.

    The interviewer ('Keelan' I think her name was) asked him what percentage of kids would experience serious oral injuries. Predictably enough, his answer was that exact figures are difficult to come up with. Clearly not so difficult to come up with given that his entire sales spiel is based on statistics of a very similar type. I was impressed by how skillfully he sidestepped the question, and appalled that she let him away with it.

    I suspect if he does know the answer he would not want us to know, since it would reveal that he is just engaging in scaremongering and profiteering.

    I am disgusted at this guy, but the counter argument is difficult to make. His speech was extremely well crafted to prey on people's fears and stick in people's heads. Offering almost completely irrelevant statistics to instill fear in parents, blatantly (but very skilfully) sidestepping the question when asked for relevant statistics. He had a very catchy catchphrase: "What looks cute on a child aged about 7 may not look so cute on an adult" - he sounded like he genuinely cared about kids, but I think it more likely that he cares genuinely about his business plan.

    I missed the end of the interview, I hope that Keelan nailed him to the wall, but from what I did hear, this guy got a very soft interview. I am sure that he either stands to make money directly from this, or else is employed as a marketing expert by a group who stand to make it.


Comments

  • #2
    super_furry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,349 ✭✭✭✭super_furry


    And the other 50% will be fat chubsters that will die before they're 50.


  • #3
    Big_G
    Moderators Posts: 1,589 ✭✭✭Big_G


    super_furry wrote:
    And the other 50% will be fat chubsters that will die before they're 50.

    Hah. True.

    The statistics are meaningless. The point is that wearing a fifty euro gumshield could save thousands of euros and man hours of dental work over the lifetime of a person from childhood to adulthood. Even if only one percent of children ever got injuries, that's still a good bet. So he's trying to save you money. If you consider oral injuries it could be anything from a cut lip to a fractured jaw. So it could be 50%. Is there some other reason why you disliked the interviewee? Could it be because this person was a dentist? Are you an anti-dentite?


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