The myth of bad British teeth
Britain has become "internationally renowned" for having "really lousy" teeth, according to TV doctor Chris van Tulleken, with people not caring enough about staining and decay. Is this label fair?
Having bad teeth is one of the stock American jokes about British people. In the world of film, spoof super-spy Austin Powers cavorts around London as a would-be sex symbol, not realising that his discoloured, crooked grin is being mocked.
In one episode of the Simpsons, a dentist scares a young patient into better oral hygiene by exposing him to a horrific publication called The Big Book of British Smiles. It features mocked-up pictures of gappy, unaligned teeth belonging, among others, to Buckingham Palace guards, the Prince of Wales and Sherlock Holmes.
Chris van Tulleken, a British doctor and TV presenter, has joined the criticism by telling Radio Times magazine that British dental standards are globally infamous and having "brown, foul teeth doesn't really bother us".
But are British mouths really in such a state and is there such a lack of vanity?....................
Having bad teeth is one of the stock American jokes about British people. In the world of film, spoof super-spy Austin Powers cavorts around London as a would-be sex symbol, not realising that his discoloured, crooked grin is being mocked.
In one episode of the Simpsons, a dentist scares a young patient into better oral hygiene by exposing him to a horrific publication called The Big Book of British Smiles. It features mocked-up pictures of gappy, unaligned teeth belonging, among others, to Buckingham Palace guards, the Prince of Wales and Sherlock Holmes.
Chris van Tulleken, a British doctor and TV presenter, has joined the criticism by telling Radio Times magazine that British dental standards are globally infamous and having "brown, foul teeth doesn't really bother us".
But are British mouths really in such a state and is there such a lack of vanity?....................
posted by Bill at
9:48 AM
1 Comments:
Makes you wonder where PHE get there information from...Quote; "According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) figures, the average number of missing or filled teeth for a 12-year-old in the UK in 2008 (the latest figures available) was 0.7. This was the joint best rating that year".
By
rcannard, at 27 May, 2015
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