(No. 13) People are weird about teeth
Is it bad to let our teeth shift?
I’ve had many dentists fill my teeth, tell me I need more, a root canal, let’s pull the tooth, it’s deeper. As a mid-teen, I’d already accepted that my teeth were bad, shaking my head, it’s because I eat like a Christmas elf.
About a month ago, I saw a highly-rated holistic dentist to have 2 outstanding cavities examined. I’ve been interested in alternative dentistry since I heard a podcast episode called Holy Spit featuring Dr. Mark Burhenne, a bit of an internet personality, in 2020. And after a previous dentist filled 2/4 cavities, clumsily, painfully, I finally began to wonder in earnest if the people drilling my teeth were a mirage, a practical joke. A very bad feeling to have in the chair.
Wary of the wellness-to-Qanon pipeline, I read about nasal breathing, brushing before meals (not after), and nanohydroxyapatite, a clinically superior substitute to fluoride in European toothpaste. I learned that fluoride in our water supply is making our teeth weaker by causing calcium dysregulation and an umbrella of other unsavory dental effects, contained under the umbrella of “Fluorosis.”
The holistic dentist wasn’t concerned about the decay on my back molars. As we peered at them with a little photo wand, she told me that they should only be filled if and when pain is coming from the exact teeth. If I insisted on filling it, she posited, we’d use a custom gold filling that would never need to be redone. She told me my jaw, the bones in my head, down to my spine, would never be aligned correctly while I had permanent retainers on, causing problems in my teeth that would only compound with age.
In all my time in and out of dental, orthodontal, and periodontal care, no dentist has ever advised this. To take my retainers off would mean not only accepting my teeth would shift but hoping for it. She was advocating for something that would, for all intents and purposes, make me uglier.
If the goal of this holistic dentist, a D.D.S. with a wide amount of certifications,1 is to improve my poor dental health, then why hadn’t I heard this advice before? Out of every effort in every office, I’ve never been advised on skull alignment, the flattening of my back teeth, or my tongue position. It has always been a dabbling in cosmetics, a dabbling in health, and out the door.
I was shocked into silence when the holistic doctor showed me the data, binders of graphs and charts, presenting the craniosacral benefits of shifting teeth. I felt cagey and afraid. I kept asking why orthodontists exist past urgent medical need, why kids didn’t know teeth move after braces, why have dentists outfit me in a new retainer as soon as the old one falls off. With every avenue, she repeated the same answer: why do you think?
I didn’t realize the result from my braces wasn’t forever when I was 12. Despite two small metal bars, reliably posing my front and bottom teeth at ready position, my teeth did move. I went in for a night retainer and it was given to me. My back teeth flattened down, my tongue pushed my top teeth forward, my jaw was tight all night, and I went through retainers with diligence. I wouldn’t let the money and pain, cuts and sores, the middle school humiliation, go to waste.
Why do I think? I knew, but I still wondered why it felt like a secret. We’re not told that teeth move, that they’re supposed to move, that the entire skull continues to grow and regenerate as we age. The forehead moves forward, the cheeks and jaw move backward, and preventing tooth loss is critical to minimizing facial bone drooping and density loss. For me, it’s too late. My molars are flat and will need to be removed when I’m older. My holistic dentist has told me about tongue movement and jaw pressure, and all these reasons why they’re flat and cavity-ridden, but the present is the same. The leaves of the plant start to die, the root and pot are ignored, and another plant is bought to replace it.
Patients aren’t given information or context about the effects of corraling the teeth for 10 or 50 years. Why bother? It doesn’t matter. They won’t have a happy 10 or 50 years anyway if they don’t look beautiful.
People really care about teeth. When I asked on Instagram if anyone has ever been advised to remove their permanent retainers, I got 100+ responses. Most of the responses were charged, they wanted to talk, to know why I’d ask, to make sure they weren’t missing anything, and to complain.
I so appreciated all of the dental assistants who messaged me with experience and advice, shocked but friendly. Here is what I’ve learned since that day: there are medical benefits to having straight teeth, such as easier cleaning and chewing, enhanced speech and pronunciation, decreased risk of tooth injury, and decreased risk of TMJ, to name a few. When I asked if they’d ever heard a dentist specifically advise letting the teeth shift, the answers were all ‘no.’
I can’t be too critical of cosmetic dentistry because of the socio-political factors at play, but it’s essential to remember that all beauty standards are oppressive, they’re forged from colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, and they’re infinitely harmful. That being said, I understand why people strive for beauty standards, of course, I do. We can giggle at the contestants on Love Island all we want, but at the end of the day, they’re rich and famous. Society doesn’t just reward those who comply with beauty standards, they punish those who don’t. It’s a racist, consumerist mess.
Compliance with beauty standards is synonymous with productivity, intelligence, kindness, and other positive traits superimposed by pretty privilege, protecting and bolstering those who (narrowly) qualify. The opposite effect occurs, too. Snap judgments of a person’s character and worth are all the much more sinister because beauty standards are soaked in white supremacy, automatically casting people of color as mentally, emotionally, and spiritually corrupt.
The United States is built on hard work.2 In the US, worth is earned and owned rather than inherent. So, naturally, conventional beauty is a possession like any other, it signifies to other people all of the positive qualities of your character, the ultimate worth. I think that is why teeth have become the American preoccupation. A signal ironically communicated by the mouth, in the mouth, to scream out that we are healthy enough, rich enough, attractive enough. Allure article “The History of the Big, Bright American Smile” from December 2020/January 2021 ends with this:
After speaking with dozens of cosmetic dentists… so many of them are quick to describe their work as uniquely, intensely, almost magically gratifying, in a way that ER nurses and firefighters—and even, in my experience, dermatologists and plastic surgeons—simply do not. “I am redefining how my patients see themselves; I am giving them confidence; my patient did not love himself until today; she was ugly until I made her beautiful; I am changing lives, not for the better, but for the best.”
Our mouths are portals. The phenomenon of cosmetic dentistry isn’t inexplicable. Our teeth are representative and expressive, they haunt our subconscious in our dreams, drilling into our basic needs for communication and nourishment.
I don’t know if I’ll ever stop questioning the dentist and release the stone ball of skepticism sitting in my stomach. I don’t know if I’ll have my retainers removed. I’ve attempted to disregard past beauty standards in the past when I cut my hair and it was mentally and emotionally taxing. I know now it’s a muscle I’ll always need to exercise.
For every rep, I’ll grow more compassionate, more lucid, and see more beauty, in earnest. But for now, I’m sore. Sometimes we just swim in the water we’re in. I’m genuinely grateful to my parents for spending thousands of dollars so that I could have braces to be beautiful and I’m also grateful that I have the capacity right now to ask why.
[Fin]
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If you want to dive deeper or gawk more, I recommend this YouTube video “good teeth are a luxury only the rich can afford” by Tiffany Ferg.
Links to certifications: Upledger Institute for CranioSacral Therapy, American Dental Association (ADA), Illinois State Dental Society (ISDS), International Academy of Biological Dentistry + Medicine (IABDM), American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM), Chicago Dental Society (CDS), and International College of Craniomandibular Orthopedics (ICCMO)
And definitely not slave labor, stolen land, and wealth hoarding.
P.S. I have a molar tattoo to represent my sweet tooth and subconscious obsession with toothy dreams