What's with the business about 'white teeth'?

[judih]

Maybe someone can explain
why 'white teeth' has become the latest passport
to the In Crowd in the U.S.A.

i don't dig it. What's goin on?
if you don't have white teeth, it really doesn't matter about anything else
i mean you'll be forgiven everything if your teeth sparkle
(at least that's how it's being sold)

is it true?
o ye who live in the capitalist oasis of the world, please enlighten (enwhiten) me

judih

[Doreen Peri]

Hey, Jude.... I didn't know there was any recent white-teeth-hype or major marketing plan for this...

But.... I have always wanted whiter teeth. Mine are stained from taking antibiotics as a kid - (tetracycline... something they used to use but don't any more)

I've tried using a bleeching tray and it didn't work, because the stains are not on the surface.

If I could afford it, I'd pay for caps.

I think a person's smile is very important. Not only in the way they feel about their appearance but in respect to their confidence. I would feel 100% better about my appearance if I could smile without covering my mouth with my hands because I'm embarrassed that my teeth are so dark.

I also think that anything a person can do cosmetically to make them feel healthier, is a good thing. White teeth do make a person look and feel healthier.

I had a friend who had badly stained teeth. He got them fixed and it was miraculous! He looked like a different person. When his teeth were badly stained, he looked sickly and unkempt. After he got them fixed, it improved not only his looks but his attitude and demeanor. He liked himself better.

[judih]

if you say so, i believe you, do
but
since i get to the western world once in a ...(distant while), i see changes in fashion and they hit me smack across the brain.

Everyone in Toronto this summer seemed to be faithful patrons of teeth-whitening strips.
Fast foods, tastes and styles
whatcha wearing and how much you got in your wallet seemed less important than the colour of teeth.

metaphorically speaking, i'm wonderin...when you meet a person, do you see the teeth or the aura?

maybe i'm just a middle-aged hippie, but i don't get the appeal of cosmetic superficials when we've got a world to look after

[Doreen Peri]

I donno, judih... If cosmetic "improvements" are costly obsessions, then that's sorta ridiculous. But if they don't cost much like a box of white strips and they work to help a person feel better about themselves, I don't see anything wrong with it.

I think people have more to give the world which needs looking after if they feel good about themselves. Anything which increases a positive, bright outlook is welcome, in my book. That's what the world needs. More bright outlooks.

(and I'm just a middle-aged hippie, too.... I think I'm a year older than you, to be precise )

Of course, when you meet a person, you see the person's aura.... but what if the person's outlook is a more positive one because he did something simple to improve his appearance?.... don't you think that brighter outlook would brighten his aura a little? hmmm?

[Doreen Peri]

I was thining of getting a tummy tuck and some collagen injected into my lips and maybe a hair weave to make it thicker and a lot longer... oh, and a little tweaking of the sagging under the chin...

whaddya think?


lol


just kidding.


(i think)

[knip]

i'm planning on getting caps...i'm trying to convince the system it's important for me in my professional role, and thereby get it done at the Crown's expense...hell, that's the way we do it in canuckia



not my idea by the way...my wife really wants me to...i don't really care...but hell, if it makes me more attractive to her, who am i to fight it?

dor, the thing about bleaches and the like is that they make the non-stained part of your teeth whiter, but not the stains, which makes them stand out even more, of course...

[perezoso]

Teeth do make the man. The alpha male needs a great smile and clean, sharpened incisors: reminds females (and potential seed receptacles) of his hunting prowess. It's a sign of bourgeois respectability and his "sharkness".

"....and he keeps dem pearly white.....".

[Lightning Rod]

When I was a baby, I sucked my fingers (fourth and fifth finger of my left hand)
this lasted until I was about five when I fell down and kissed a concrete curb and knocked out my front teeth. It broke me of sucking my fingers.

When my permanent teeth grew in, I still had a prominent overbite, so I spent the majority of my adolescence in braces. It cost my parents a fortune, but I had a straight set of pearlies by the time I was sixteen.

When I was in my thirties I discovered the truth in what 'zoso says.

One unfortunate day I was kidnapped and pistol whipped to within an inch of my life. I spit my teeth out around the barrel of a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson. For several weeks, before I could arrange for replacements, I was snaggle toothed. And when I got my teeth synthesized they were straighter and more regular than my originals. And too white.

It was driven home to me how symbolic teeth are of power. My original teeth had prominent incisors and canines. My new ones were more uniform. It cost me power.

A few years ago I overhauled and specified that the new ones should have more prominent canines. I wanted to look more carnivorous rather than bovine. My power increased.

I think the next set I get will have incisors like Bobby Kennedy and canines like Count Dracula.

[mnaz]

Kinda like knowing when to use all the right buzzwords in politics...

[stilltrucking]

I discovered how much difference a mans height can make. I used to work with this guy who was five foot four He worked for a big corporate restaurant chain, he was a good cook and an able administrator, they did not want to lose him so they kept promising him he would be promoted to manager. But they kept breaking his heart by promoting idiots over him because they were tall executive looking types.

Speaking of cosmetic surgery, I used to be circumcised I been thinking of getting that done over.

You probably didn't want to know that, I know am grateful you never answered my question about it. I didn't really want to know.
*******
I should maybe have used a smiley on that one.

[abcrystcats]

Too funny, stilltrucking ...

Remember, now, this is the postmodern world, and your perception of me is far more important than what I actually am. If perception is important, then LOOKS are all-important, because everybody's perception of you starts from how you look.

I am little behind with the tooth-whitening thing. I have always had straight teeth and fairly hard enamel. Most of the dental work that's been done on me has been totally unnecessary and for the sole benefit of the dentist's BMW payments. Like everyone else, though, my teeth do get a little dark looking from time to time. One day, my sister-in-law meets me at her door, all dressed up and ready to go out. Her teeth are gleaming white. Piano keys. She has nice big, straight teeth. They could almost glow in the dark. Made a difference.

I bought a whitening gel and have been using it a couple times a week, ever since.

I feel sorry for short guys. They get a bum rap. Some of the nicest men I've ever known have been short. My first boyfriend was 5'6". The last was 5'8", but in bed he was 6'4" (you didn't want to know that). I knew a man I really, really liked in CA who barely came up to my shoulder. He was married, fortunately, so I never had to deal with the shortness issue directly. I think if he had been a possible partner, I really would have struggled with it, because I can't see tossing out a whole person because of a physical detail. Lots of nice short guys.

[perezoso]

oink