White teeth, bright life

By Julia Keller
Chicago Tribune

Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise are famous for their bright smiles as well as their acting skills. Advertiser library photos

Those teeth, which one critic described as "antique Chiclets," were a dead giveaway, the incisor equivalent of a neon sign flashing, "Caution! Creep Ahead!"

Law was counting on the audience's recognition of a primitive visual polarity: White teeth mean good guy. Yellow teeth, bad guy.

The use of teeth color as an ethical tip-off harks back centuries and ignores national borders. The whole world wants white teeth — boldly, brashly, vividly, sometimes obscenely and insanely white teeth.

But why? Why are white teeth — which, after all, are no healthier than not-so-white teeth — so desirable? What cultural siren song is emitted by a dazzling half-moon display of charismatic choppers?

One thing is clear, say scholars and anthropologists: The wild yen for gleaming teeth didn't start with Crest Whitestrips.

Yet those sticky little tabs have joined an array of new teeth-whitening products and procedures that can do the job better and more cheaply than ever before.

According to a consumer research group, 132 new teeth-whitening devices have been introduced in the past five years, including peroxide-laden strips pressed on teeth, liquids brushed on teeth, teeth-whitening toothpaste and teeth-whitening gum.

Over the same period, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry reports, customer requests for dentists to perform teeth whitening procedures — which can include power bleaching or trays filled with a whitening solution that are fitted on patients' teeth — have risen more than 300 percent.

The phenomenon is not restricted to the United States. People in Germany, Finland, Canada, Brazil, Bosnia, Hungary, Malaysia, Austria and Iran also desire alabaster smiles, according to dentists who tend to their teeth.

The simple explanation: White teeth are coveted because, now more than ever, we can attain them. Teeth whitening has become so cheap and easy that the only excuse these days for dingy grins is apathy or deliberate contrariness. It's a quickie route to aesthetic self-improvement, much easier than, say, grunting through a gym workout or enduring Botox injections.

The same process occurred with orthodontics. Once the exclusive province of the wealthy, straight teeth moved into the middle classes as the price of braces came down.

White teeth, however, reach even deeper into the psyche. We yearn for them because somewhere in our souls, we associate whiteness with hygiene, morality and youth. Herman Melville was on to something when he added a chapter titled "The Whiteness of the Whale" to his novel "Moby Dick" (1851), rhapsodizing, "Whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles, japonicas (camellia blossoms), and pearls; and ... various nations have in some way recognized a certain royal pre-eminence in the hue."

Even though teeth naturally darken as people age, helped along by savage stain-inducers such as coffee, cigarettes and red wine, most still want their teeth to look like they did before the bad habits kicked in.

"We're all programmed to appreciate white teeth," says Michael Jorgensen, associate professor at the University of Southern California's School of Dentistry.

Hollywood, moreover, has helped with the hard-wiring. Movie and TV actors sport bigger, bolder, more bizarrely white teeth than ever before, adding to the cultural pressure.

Jorgensen and a colleague recently published a study proving the safety of over-the-counter teeth whiteners. He attributes the increase in the number of such products to the fact that we've conquered other dental challenges — the conditions that cause pain and suffering. What's next to obsess over? Appearance, naturally.

But why white teeth? Who decided that white teeth were the ultimate in oral allure, when did they decide it and why did the rest of the world go along?

"I think you need to talk to the anthropologists and psychologists," shrugs Dr. Saul Legator, a Chicago dentist.

White functions as a symbol of virility and cleanliness in areas other than teeth — but teeth are a perfect public stage for white's come-hither quality.

Moreover, Legator adds, styles of smiling changed dramatically in the 20th century. Movie stars in the 1920s, '30s and '40s generally offered thin, tepid, lips-only smiles; by the 1990s, big, bodacious smiles from the likes of Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise had become the standard. The reason? Better dental techniques meant better-looking smiles for stars as well as the rest of us, he says. And if you've got it, flaunt it.

In a study of conducted by a toothbrush manufacturer last year and published by the Christian Science Monitor, about 75 percent of women surveyed said white teeth were a major factor in male sex appeal. And one of the most hotly discussed novels of recent times is Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" (2000), a novel that uses teeth as a metaphor for a cultural ideal that survives the mingling of cultures, religions and generations.

Smith was clearly on to something.

"In ancient India and Egypt, in Sumer and Babylon, they had all kinds of materials for whitening teeth," says David Chernin, a dentist and clinical instructor at Harvard University.

"Humankind doesn't change. This crosses times and religions and cultures. In India in 1500-800 B.C., they used a compound of honey and oil and other elements as a paste on a twig" to whiten teeth, Chernin adds. "In China between 33 and 1400 A.D., it was white ash and honey."

But why white when, especially for ancient cultures, maintaining white teeth was a pain in the neck?

White, Chernin speculates, always has been a cultural touchstone indicating freshness, vigor and value. "Virgins in Roman times were clad in white."

Ellen Steinberg, an anthropologist who has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and other universities, notes that for centuries and across cultures, teeth have been canvases for political and social statements. Messages have been conveyed through whitening, filing and even knocking out certain teeth to indicate standing in a group. In contemporary times, "inlaying teeth with diamonds or rimming them with gold" is a widespread practice, she adds.

But whiteness was and is the benchmark, perhaps because white teeth long have been associated with youth and vigor, says John Burton, a history professor at DePaul University.

"It's not so much that the standard of beauty has changed" that explains our ravenous desire for white teeth, he adds. "It's that it's obtainable now."

People in the 18th century — the area of Burton's specialization — would have flocked to dentists to have those sepia stains removed, had such procedures been available. Discolored teeth were associated with old age, bad breath, withered hopes. But what could an 18th-century guy do?

Matthew Messina, a Cleveland dentist who serves as the American Dental Association's consumer adviser, concurs.

"In years past, there was a fatalistic attitude toward teeth," Messina says.

People assumed they were going to lose them anyway, so why bother with whiteness? As better care and dental techniques improved, however, "People think, 'If I'm going to keep my teeth, let's make them look good.'

"At first, teeth whitening was seen as a personal indulgence," Messina continues. "But now, it's like getting your nails done. It's OK."

It's OK around the world as well.

"Whitening therapies constantly grew in the last few years in Germany," reports Dr. Sebastian Ziller of the German Dental Association.

"People in Iran love to have whiter teeth," says Dr. Ali Yazdani of the Iranian Dental Association.

In Canada, the desire for white teeth is "absolutely" on the upswing, declares Dr. Tom Breneman, president of the Canadian Dental Association. "It's very interesting. As we go through life and use our teeth, they darken."

They're supposed to darken. But just try telling that to parents, Breneman says.

"If the tooth isn't white, the parents think it's not perfect. A child's first teeth are so white. As soon as the other teeth start coming in, the parents say, 'What's wrong with these other teeth?' "