Selling the perfect smile

 

Where does our obsession for white teeth come from?

Charles Pincus in 1928 created custom veneers for Hollywood stars, including Shirley Temple. This may seem innocuous if not for the fact that Shirley Temple, a child was only pictured with a full set of custom-made teeth. Naturally, her baby teeth were falling out, yet to create the “perfect” image she had to adopt tooth caps to hide her missing teeth.

(Image sourced from flagstaffdental)

Television was only one mode for selling the perfect smile, in recent years influencers on social media have advertised cosmetic dentistry as a must. Cosmetic dentistry is one of the largest industries in the beauty industry, including teeth whitening which has seen a rise. “4 in 10 under 35’s had tooth whitening treatment with 48% planning to have them whitened within the next 12 months. 20% of British adults have had cosmetic dentistry with 1 in 10 having had treatment in the last 12 months” (Oral Health Foundation, 2020). Dental procedures can be costly, as such companies like Whites Beaconsfield have broken into a lucrative market which has succeeded due to working alongside previous members of Love Island UK, such as Kady McDermott. Whites Beaconsfield offer a range of products including whitening lamps for £9.99 to teeth whitening kits, at less than £40. They utilise social media for advertising, including working with Influencers who sell aspects of their lives as a commodity and sponsored products like teeth whitening have implemented a stance of “you could look just like me”. This stance neglects to mention the celebrities sponsoring the products often have veneers and as such likely don’t need the products they advertise. 

Many of these companies advertise drastic changes in colour from yellow to white but legally cannot attest to that as teeth-whitening products/kits for use at home can legally contain up to 0.1% hydrogen peroxide, while professional dentist’s application contains up to 6%. The natural colour of teeth is off-white contrasting with the cosmetically “improved” smiles, provided in the media. The influence of tooth whitening commercials and airbrushed celebrities is undeniable. In reality, your natural tooth colour is darker than pure white as teeth consists of an outer enamel layer and an underlying dentin layer. The latter is less transparent providing a light grey or (light) yellow appearance.

Research conducted by Barclays 2019 stated that 82% of dentists believe celebrity culture has increased demand for dental work. As such, white teeth are treated as an investment in your career, a way to provide opportunities. Ann Peterson in ‘No One Told Me Being Middle Class Meant Wearing My Retainer Forever’ highlights the absurdity of the social obsession with teeth whitening: “there’s this weird subterfuge…that the money we spend, the attention we pay, the pain we endure as part of bourgeois body and class maintenance is temporary”.

Why do we allow our appearance to define us?