How Britain got its Bad Teeth RepMay 23 2014

It seems like every country and group of people have a visible stereotype, true or not, and despite progress and growth these stereotypes and generalizations often stick around long past the original semblance of truth. Around the world, British citizens are considered to have some of the worst teeth! While the British insist that maintaining your original smile offers true character and charm the Americans scoff at their inability to take care of and perfect their teeth. The British personality and character is quite free-spirited compared to Americans and they take conformity and perfection less seriously. Prominent British actors and singers like Ricky Gervais and Ringo from the Beatles, maintain their fame and recognition without the need to purchase a ‘Hollywood smile’. In polls the general British population actually prefers the look of more natural coloring on teeth that mimics more of a porcelain or cream compared to the overly bleached, bright white. After more examination it seems that although British children are at an amazingly high rate for tooth decay, with 1 in 5 children showing signs of decay, their teeth may not be so much inherently worse than anyone else’s. More than anything it depends what kind of scale you’re using to measure good versus bad teeth. For Americans, natural is never good enough and having braces or some sort of cosmetic dental work is almost like a rite of passage that brings you forward to compete with the rest of society. Britain, on the other hand, disregards this move towards artificial smiles as unnecessary. Perhaps Americans have teeth that are just too good while the Brits aren’t that bad after all. Of course, the bottom line is that as long as your teeth are healthy and you are happy with your smile, we support your decision to have cosmetic dental procedures or not. We are here to serve you, no matter what.