To ask what you think about your teeth and current trends..

[Iswinterhere]

I have quite naturally yellow, slightly misaligned teeth and up until my early 30’s I never really gave it much thought. However, during the last decade I have become more and more ashamed of my smile and it’s really starting to get me down.

I’m due to have an implant put in this year and on one hand I am considering having Invisalign and maybe some whitening done.

On the other hand I feel sad / angry that I feel pressured (by current beauty standards) to make my teeth ‘perfect’ and can’t just be happy as I am.

These days it seems everyone has perfectly straight and blindingly white teeth!

Straight white teeth is a cultural thing for Americans.
I had braces as a teen then whitened as an adult and then veneers. My adult children had the same. So we do have perfect smiles.

Good veneers are expensive so no chiclet ones from turkey.

I have to laugh at old men getting them as they all seem to have grossly unkempt grey beards and had never done a lick of skin care in their lives which is why they brightest bleach shade looks ridiculous on them when say B2 shade would have looked white but natural.

As long as they're healthy and nobody has mentioned them, they're probably fine.

Braces are painful. Why do that unless you have to?

I’ve always had straight teeth, although a little off colour and they didn’t match the two half veneers I had at the front due to an accident as a teen.

I had bleaching and then composite bonding and my teeth are amazing now. They do look fake, but I didn’t go for the whitest shade, so they aren’t dazzling.

But I love them!

My cousin went to Turkey for his teeth - he had badly discoloured and wonky teeth and now has a lovely smile. He didn’t go overly white, so they just look like really lovely, naturally shaped teeth at the top end of the natural scale.

And applying "current trends" to a part of your skeleton is mad

I think whats scary is 18-25 year olds having their perfectly good teeth filed down so they can have turkey teeth fitted. They look wrong and false, people look like they talk like they have dentures. Imo 🤷🏻‍♀️

Disproving the super white veneers or nothing scenario, my front two are veneered and the "tooth artist" hand painted them to match the rest of my teeth, slightly mottled but actually quite white when not under artificial yellow light.

I also had the option to have them shorted so all in a line but asked to keep them as they were, slightly regret that now.

Much more natural than when I first
had them done 35 years ago.

I think you’ve nailed it with that! Thank you :)

I hate my teeth. They are a natural colour (not white but not yellow), and used to be straight. No NHS dentists to be had where I live, and I now have a drifting tooth that is starting to poke out between my lips and causing issues.
Turkey teeth look creepy to me.. like they are belong to a mannequin. I think slightly wonky teeth look human and attractive.

I hate that chiclet look of all too-white veneers, like people off Towie.

But I think if you can improve your teeth by whitening and straightening them, it’s worth it. I’d hate to be self-conscious about my smile.

Thanks everyone, really good to see a range of opinions. Especially that not everyone thinks we need perfectly white and straight teeth - has made me feel less judged.

I also have some gum issues at the back, which I’m seeing a perio specialist for, but that’s going on the right direction at least!

Watching an episode of Love Island or The Apprentice should be enough to put you off the 'perfect teeth' look. They all look ridiculous, they look like carbon copies if each other. The people all look the same and they have no character.

Straight whitened teeth are nice. Square, uniformed veneer type teeth are awful (IMO).

I've been lucky in the old teeth department, straight and no fillings or work done and I'm in my 30's.

My teeth are clean and their natural cram/white bone colour.

When this whole super white trend became a thing, I asked my dentist if I could have my teeth whitened, he brought out this scale thing and said basically he could charge me a good few quid for it, but my teeth were already pretty much at the top of the scale for natural whiteness. He refused to bleach them or damage them as they are apparently "nice strong healthy teeth" 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think people have forgotten what colour teeth are actually supposed to be. Your teeth are not naturally the colour of A4 white paper!

This is just with the crest strips Professional effects. no fake whitening fillers on photo apps, used to have to do that!

filter *

Wow, that is really a great result!

(sorry lost track of the thread, but back now!)

My teeth are completely straight except for a noticeable gap between the front two teeth. Think Jessica Hart or Lara Stone.

I used to HATE the gap when I was growing up, and my mum refused to let me get a brace as she said the gap would close up once my wisdom teeth came through. Well, guess what, no wisdom teeth ever came through... 🙄

But I have come to accept and like the gap, and feel weirdly attached to it. Although it was slightly distressing when my dentist recently started pressuring me into getting composite bonding to close the gap without me even suggesting or asking about it. I was like 'But do I need it because I actually quite like the gap...' - she soon started back-tracking!

I think it's nice to have some slight imperfections in a smile, and in some cultures it's actually considered lucky to have a gap (I think the French call a gap 'dents du bonheur').

I'd probably get some teeth whitening if I could be bothered, but a bit of crooked teeth or a gap - embrace it as something that sets you apart from the Turkey Teethers of the world...! 😉

I'm getting invisalign fitted tomorrow. I've been paranoid about my teeth for at least 15 years, but now I can actually afford to do something about them. It's nothing to do with trends, for me at least.