American Versus British Teeth

[c.d.]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7633254.stm

c.d.

[sdreid]

I'm about to turn 67 and I still have all 32 good teeth. They are also ivory color like they are supposed to be. If they are too white, people think you have false teeth.

[Robert]

American teeth are better than British ones. But how can you have an 80-year-old bloke with a pearly white set of choppers? It doesn't look natural. But maybe that's the attraction, e.g. I had always assumed that women who had boob jobs done would be keeping quiet about it, trying to pass them off as their own. But according to something I heard last year, here in the UK women show off their boob jobs to their friends. The idea was, women are boasting that they can afford to have it done. I was gobsmacked, and not for the first time.

[Robert]

Yes Stan, don't let them get too white. Take up smoking and drink lots of tea.

[sdreid]

Coffee keeps then properly toned Robert.

[Cogidubnus]

My mother's teeth were appallingly bad and were all removed when she was in her forties...but that was largely down to childhood poverty followed by the shortages in WWll plus post-war rationing, when many working class folk suffered calcium shortages as well as a lack of wherewithal for dentistry. I think that's something which we tend to have forgotten.

Approaching 60 my own teeth weren't bad until five or six years back the inevitable effects of years of smoking (from age 13 to 48) caught up with them...and I lost four...they're not visible, nor vital, and whilst I could, I suppose, have had the gaps filled, it seems a lot of effort and expense for little return...other people's priorities may be different...my own may be if I start losing incisors!

If I had to make an observation it'd be that whilst the USA may well have the world's best dentistry I bet it costs an arm and a leg, and there'll still be a lot of people who can't afford that...let's be honest, in the end you only get what you're prepared (one way or another) to pay for

All the best

Dave

[Robert]

I once read that about 200 years ago, rich people's teeth were worse than poor people's. It was something to do with rich people being able to afford sugar and sugary things.

As late as the 60s I remember Ribena being advertised as being "with calcium, for strong bones and teeth."

[c.d.]

Well I will admit to being vain. A few years ago I went to the dentist and got mine whitened. The initial cost was $500. He made a mold of my mouth from which they made plastic trays (to protect your gums from the bleaching agent). You put a gel in the trays (top and bottom) and leave them on your teeth for an hour or so for a couple of weeks. The first few times you do it hurt like hell. It makes your teeth extremely sensitive. You need to repeat the process for a couple of days about every six months or so. That means you have to shell out another $50 a year.

Despite the cost and the pain, I am extremely pleased with the results and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I am always amazed when I see professional people with good jobs and nice clothes who have bad teeth. Obviously they have money so I can't understand why they don't do something about it. Or maybe I am just more vain than the next man.

Now all I have to do is something about my beer belly.

c.d.

[Archaic]

I once read that about 200 years ago, rich people's teeth were worse than poor people's. It was something to do with rich people being able to afford sugar and sugary things.

Hi Robert.

Yes, that's true. They also had terrible Gout from too much rich meat and seafood and beverages like Port.

In his writings Leo Tolstoy often mentioned the good white teeth of the Russian peasants, who ate very simply.

Ancient Egyptian mummies usually have their teeth all worn down because it was impossible to keep fine sand particles out of the food- even Pharoah's.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Cogidubnus]

the real curse of the mummy

Ancient Egyptian mummies usually have their teeth all worn down because it was impossible to keep fine sand particles out of the food- even Pharoah's.

What, good old Neferteethi and Toothankamoon?

Sorry!

All the best

Dave

[c.d.]

At the Smithsonian Natural History Museum here in Washington, D.C. there is an exhibit on human remains that were found at the Jamestown Colony. Apparently everyone, including children, smoked clay pipes which led to cracks in the teeth and infections. A number of people died from tooth infections or simply died of malnutrition because they could not eat solid food.

When I was there I saw a Mother and her daughter probably around age 5 or so. On display were teeth that had been found at the site. The mother pointed them out and said "see, those people lost their teeth because they didn't brush them." The young girl didn't say anything but gave her Mother a look like "are you bull-----ing me? Cracked me up.

Also, apparently Mothers were terrified that there babies would catch something so they kept them wrapped up in swaddling clothes. As a result, it was not uncommon to get rickets (weak bones) as a result of lack of vitamin D. Sunshine wasn't getting through all of the clothes. Sad.

c.d.

[Wickerman]

I am always amazed when I see professional people with good jobs and nice clothes who have bad teeth. Obviously they have money so I can't understand why they don't do something about it. Or maybe I am just more vain than the next man.

Now all I have to do is something about my beer belly.

c.d.

Maybe ....some of those professional people also have a large belly, but they wear a corset to hide it.
Maybe....they also wonder why, if anyone can afford a corset, ...yet you don't?

[Wickerman]

It is amusing though that 'Americana' is often viewed as false, no matter what the subject is.

Not that the product, whatever that be is cheap (teeth, breasts, hair, botox, etc.), often quite the opposite. But that the product is just not real, its false, or it replicates a real appearance by false means.
America promotes the "wanna-be" society where you can look like whoever you choose and pretend to be whatever you want.

And that extends to the self adoration of the American male as the proverbial gunslinger

There is something amusing about that.

Regards, Jon S.

[APerno]

At the risk of coming across ethnically bigoted, it is not the color (colour) or health of British teeth that Americans react to; it is when we see wealthy Brits with (healthy) crooked teeth that we ask why.

Almost everyone in America today, working class and above has their children’s teeth straightened with braces. I survive on a school teacher’s salary (and the wife only works part time,) but with a little savings and healthcare insurance we got bracers for both our children. (They needed them.) It has become (almost) a must in this society. There is a strong prejudice against crooked teeth here, right or wrong it screams low class, but that does not seem the case in Britain.

I repeat, it is not missing or discolored teeth we react to, they are just as common here, it is the absence of braces that surprises us; our teeth are just as unhealthy, they just look better.

Braces are amazing, even the most crooked teeth can be straightened in 18 months. Of course you must then wear a “retainer” to bed every night for the rest of your life, or they move again. By the way, excuse me, I have to go yell at my daughter, damn things cost me three grand, she better have that damn retainer in.

Anthony

[fodsaks]

As a Brit who lived in the U.S.A. for two years, the American mania for 'perfect' teeth is frankly startling. All their poor kids seem get their mouths filled with metal clamps by the time they're 10, even if there teeth seem perfectly normal.
When I was at school, only two kids had braces and that's because their choppers were going SERIOUSLY haywire.
But if your teeth are a little bit crooked here and there, but still healthy, what on Earth is the problem?
A gap in the teeth never did Ray Davies any harm.