If I got sent back 500 years in time would they burn me as a witch because of my great teeth?

[TheCourtierTapsHisFan]

And if so, should I pull out some (?all) of my teeth, or is there something that I could chew on to make them look more days of yore terrible?

Um......chances are you wouldn't have great teeth if you were alive 500 years ago .

Or they may all have had great teeth, not much sugar in the diet.

Have you got those really, really white teeth? They might have used you for illumination at night.

In 1524 most people aren’t eating huge amounts of sugar so the tooth decay isn’t as bad as it gets later. What you get instead is more wear from eating stone ground flour. So pulling out a few isn’t going to help you fit in.
If you are in England they don’t burn witches they hang them , the witch persecution fashion isn’t till later and there is nothing to suggest having good teeth was ever taken as evidence of witchcraft.

There are probably other things that would make them suspicious of you before they saw your teeth. Like your height, or your hair colour, or the fact that you'd be wandering around saying "Oh my god! Look at that! I wish I had my phone."

I definitely would be the scary old lady living in the forest with all my animals. I'd love to channel my inner Granny Weatherwax

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel so flattened teeth rather than rotten/absent teeth to blend in?

I think about this sometimes and have concluded I would have been drowned in the pond. I'm bipolar and have been properly bonkers. Also I have pretty fabulous teeth. I'm fucked aren't I.

Why do you ask? Do you have access to a Time Machine?

I get really confused about time travel. Like would my clothes come with me? What about moisturiser/ perfume / make up that was already on my body? Because you could put a whole face of make up on made of modernly invented chemicals and then take it to scientists in the olden times to prove you were a time traveller. Also could write lottery numbers on your arm in eyeliner as its pretty universally acknowledged that you can't take "stuff" with you (so couldn't write them on eg a piece of paper) but then the Butterfly Effect maybe means because of ME and MY TIME TRAVEL the lottery might not be invented or might get different numbers come out but then how did the boy get the bell from The Polar Express? If I time travelled back to Pride and Prejudice times was Colin Firth real or not? So that's why I haven't invented or tried to invent time travel yet.

I think you'd be more likely to be accused of witchcraft because (i assume) you wouldn't know all the rituals and expected behaviours in church - the entire service would have been in Latin. Big red flag for witchy hunters.

Or you'd have knowledge of geography (Americas had been discovered, but you'd trip up on talling about Australia/New Zealand which weren't located by white Europeans till the 1600s). Or you'd mention electricity and sound like a nutter.

I think I'd time travel and become a witchy woman because I'd try and remember some GCSE science and start growing my own penicillin, could cure the rich people of syphilis and all sorts. But I'd be caught muttering about bacteria and viruses and the need to sterilise wounds and get carted off.

Don't think teeth had too much to do with identifying witches. Unless it was curing toothache.

If I time travelled back 500 years I'd like to keep hold of the time machine so I could travel back and forth to wash my clothes and myself. However I suspect the level of cleanliness might lead to people being suspicious of me. (Ingoring the fact that people would wonder where I had come from, my precived odd behaviour (see post above) and also would I have a home?)

Do you ever just see people and think they look like they should have been born in a different time? I see people sometimes and I think 'Roman' or 'medieval peasant' or 'Renaissance woman'.
I personally look like some sort of Incan llama herder.

I think it would be a good idea to pretend to be foreign but go somewhere people won’t have seen foreigners much so they will believe anything if you claim to be from Tartary or something.

Excellent tip ‘pretend to be foreign’. V useful. Would have to curate a whole plausible backstory.

The teeth concern is because they are so visible (teeth in general, I don’t have a set of blinding white veneers or anything). The worry is the first time you went to market to purchase some bread or something the seller would be all WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH YOUR TEETH?!!! And you’d be outed instantly.

I had not considered my height (5 foot 9) or my full head of highlights which are both a bit of a give away.

Your height isn’t a problem at all. It is a myth that people were much shorter. Populations get shorter when nutrition deteriorates with the Industrial Revolution but even then there is variability so you might be tall but not freakishly so.
Your highlights are less of a problem than the fact you don’t realise you need to cover your hair 😉 Never mind a witch, people are going to assume you are insane or a prostitute.

Yes! The footballer John Stones looks like a soldier from WW1 !

If you knew when and where you were going to you could research. I think I have quite a good peasant look but a bit overfed maybe! Language and accent would be a problem, speech has really changed and of course we don't know the exact pronunciation people used even if we have written texts. Slang words used by the common people were also rarely recorded.