Would you hire someone without a front tooth?

[SparklyNewMe]

I am looking to fill a customer facing, well paid position for a large organisation.
I have interviewed a candidate with suitable experience, I can see him fitting in well with the team but 2 front teeth are missing. My DH is missing a front tooth for the last 2 months, it’s taking NHS that long and it’s been fitted today at last. So, I know it’s not a red flag in itself and can be circumstances. Maybe he cannot afford and does not plan to fix. But I can’t ask him outright about this, I can’t discriminate on this basis and also I can’t have someone represent our organisation like this. It maybe my own biases and it’s perfectly acceptable and I am precious?

Any advice on how to go about it will be greatly appreciated.

Do you have any idea how much it costs to get a dental implant?

Can you give us more info? Is it his two top front teeth, which would make him lisp.

Two teeth next to each other could have potentially been knocked out in an accident.

Are the rest of his teeth in an awful state indicating lack of personal hygiene?

Maybe he needs a job to pay for dental treatment.

Maybe he deliberately applies for unsuitable roles hoping to get turned down so that he can sue for discrimination.

Maybe this is all he's good at and he's desperate for work.

For me, a lot would depend on the type of role - a lot of difference between someone on the till in Tesco to someone who has to do a lot of 1-2-1 sessions with a lot of talking (especially if the missing teeth affects his speech).

WTF is wrong with you????

Nah I wouldn’t.

There are much cheaper alternatives to dental implants@pineapplebobbing

Are you seriously asking this question?? You really need to a word with yourself! I hope he walks away because you've clearly already judged him.

How ridiculous 🙄

It’s not always easy to get anything done about teeth, first you need to find a dentist who will see you and then you need to be able to pay for the implants/other treatments. Even if you can do all this the whole process can take ages. I wouldn’t discriminate just because of teeth if the candidate was a good fit and his personal hygiene was ok. I think it’s awful to even be asking this question tbh.

Absolutely! If they are the best suited candidate why wouldn't you!

Customers don't care what the assistant looks like as long as they provide excellent service!

How do you know the teeth aren’t missing DUE to a disability? There are many that could cause this.

If this person is otherwise very well turned out with good hygiene I think it would be peak discrimination not to hire on the basis of teeth. People saying “he might have a lisp” - and so fucking what if he does! Speech impediments are also not a reason to discriminate funnily enough.

There is absolutely no way to tell how or why he has 2 front teeth missing, any guess you might make will be solely rooted in assumption and prejudice.

Besides given the state of dental care here, as someone else has said, you may be denying him the job he needs to save up to have replacements created. Who knows?

There's a shop in my town where the cashier is missing front teeth. Yes, it's noticeable. But they're great at their job - friendly, helpful, efficient. I'd rather be served by them than the sullen cashier who never looks at you.

Hire him.

I can say from experience that that is absolutely not true, lol.

I've been present in meetings where senior management have had to have awkward conversations about people's appearance and hygiene in the workplace - it absolutely does matter and unfortunately teeth (or lack of) aren't something you can hide very well.

Whether it should or not is a different story, of course.

Seriously? You can't even consider that someone job hunting might not even be able to AFFORD to get the teeth fixed? Or that they're on a huge waiting list? Or that it's only happened recently so they haven't had the chance to sort anything yet?

Always the negative!
Or he lost them playing sport, had a car accident, got assaulted, was doing DIY and had an accident, had a fall and hit his teeth, has genetic dental issues
Probably can't get a dentist

But no obviously he's either a fighter or a smoker

If that is your attitude I wouldn't want to represent a company like yours!

Of course you can't discriminate, but I'm a bit surprised he didn't offer an explanation. A few years ago I had an interview lined up and at the weekend I slipped in Yo Sushi and gave myself a black eye. I rang them and asked if I should postpone and they said to come along. I got the job but would have felt awkward if it were the elephant in the room , so to speak.

@MissDoubleU "The hunger games of basic dental care" 😂😂 So bleak, but so true!

Maybe he is in between tooth implants, I don't think you can discriminate someone because they are missing 2 front teeth.

Hygiene and fixable things like being generally unkempt isn’t the same as your senior management saying “Unfortunately a few of you are quite different. Jimmy has a limb difference, Susan is too fat and Dave over there - Well, I’m sorry Dave, but you’re just too ugly.”

People not showering enough or being raggedy can be addressed and fixed by a manager. Physical differences they can’t change the next day cannot. So, Teeth not being brushed - fine to comment, bad breath is unpleasant for the customer.. Teeth being missing - no one’s business.

If customers find it unpleasant it’s really their own problem and prejudice.

Sadly the odds were not in my favour 😂 I’ve given up hope of getting NHS dental care altogether.

I hope I’m not in a car accident or attacked or something, knocking my teeth out. God forbid I become suddenly unemployable because customers might not want to look at me, or my potential boss assumes I’m a smoker who will take constant breaks.

He most likely needs a job so he can get his teeth fixed. Not employing him because of his appearance is really out of order.

As a customer I'd be more put off by someone with a mouthful of Turkey teeth than 2 missing teeth. The former suggests to me a lack of judgement. Two missing teeth might make me speculate briefly on the cause (sport, assault etc). I'd be very impressed if they owned it and didn't seem self-conscious.

I had an interview once for a US firm that was obsessed with smoking and if you got a job with them you had to sign an undertaking that you would not smoke. Yes even when not at work. They wouldn't interview smokers.

They also insisted you completed a "suitability quiz" which had a question like "you discover your coworker uses marijuana. Do you (a) warn them you know, (b) inform your line manager (c) report it to the police.". I suspect the reason I did not get the role was because I wrote "(d) Mind my own fucking business".

This was in 2004. I wasn't impressed and let the agency that put me forwards know. They claimed ignorance and appeared shocked. But a friend had a similar experience a few months later through the same agent, so that was a crock.

This sort of thing happens all the time. Just because it's not legal don't stop it. Hence my adage about rights you can't enforce are worthless. Like most of our employment and equality laws.

I have to be honest OP and said I would have felt the same as you prior to my recent experience. If the person had said it was temporary then fine, but otherwise I would have judged and thought, well why arent they sorting it?

BUT this year has been awful for me. AND I had access to an NHS dentist and money to throw at the problem. Im a well presented professional woman. I had to have my two front bottom teeth removed last year due to infection - it was agony. I had a temp denture which caused me no end of grief and I couldnt wear it - it was ripping my gums apart and painful. I then have gone through the process of implants but due to them not taking first of all, infections, and having to wait for them to heal, its taken a year for them to finally be done (next month - yay!!) but I cant wear the denture (too painful and you have to let the implant rod heal), so I have spent most of the year with two missing bottom teeth. Its been mortifying. Im so embarrassed about it and worrying that people are thinking (like I would have been) - why isnt she sorting this? I avoid smiling, cover my mouth all the time, its been really awful. And this happened to me with full access to an NHS and private dentist. If not god knows where I would be. This experience has been quite humbling tbh. Poor bloke.

Exactly this. I’ve never once got interviewed for any job where I disclosed my disability at application stage. I have, however, been given the same job a week later without my honest disclosure.

Funny how that works, eh 🫠

If he was otherwise presentable, yes. People lose teeth for a whole host of reasons including sports and accidents.