This thread reminded me of a poll I have been interested in trying
How good were your teeth naturally, good in a vanity sence. I’m not interested in yellowing as you age and have bad habits. Cavities, root canals, random abscesses, broken teeth, crowns etc. do not count. Im just talking arrangement and apperance.
My dad’s side of the family seems to have given us bad-looking teeth. They’re crooked as hell. My parents could not afford braces for us so my siblings and I all have ugly crooked teeth.
My son has an added bonus weird tooth, a ‘peg lateral’ which is a strange skinny looking tooth. It’s one of his cuspids IIRC.
My daughter got her dad’s teeth which are much better looking. They are large, square, hard teeth.
Ohh man I knew I would screw up my first poll. I meant to have a medium options between minor flaws and huge mess, between 3 and 4 and between 6 and 7
Absolutely terrible naturally. As a child, my teeth stuck out so much that when I closed my mouth, my front teeth fit naturally over my bottom lip. I wore a retainer to push my teeth back from 3rd through 6th grade, then had braces to close the gaps between my teeth in 7th and 8th grade.
Now everyone says I have beautiful teeth. I still have a very large gap on the upper row between the left second incisor and the canine because my teeth are very small and pushing them all together in front left this space. My dentist suggested veneers to close the gap but I don’t really care. Nobody notices!
I had a spacer for a few years when I was a kid, because I inherited my mom’s really small mouth and my teeth were getting crowded and crooked. A couple are still slightly crooked and I have a chip in the front of one of my teeth. Unfortunately the time spent trying to fix the crowding may have contributed to my TMD. Sometimes I think it would have been better if my parents had just left my teeth crooked.
I have one tooth that’s crooked, but everything else grew in exactly as they should have, including wisdom teeth.
I had one tooth that was a little twisted. A retainer with a spring behind it for a few months took care of it. It was minor to begin with. If my grandfather’s cousin hadn’t been a dentist (who made the thing for cost) I doubt we’d have done anything about it.
On the non-cosmetic front me teeth are a mess. My sister had bite problems and braces, but no cavities until she was 38. I got 4 fillings on my first dentist visit.
Various people, including I think possibly my current dentist, assume that I must have had braces. They really just came in that straight, that’s all.
I have stains, supposedly from fluoridated water, but otherwise, they look perfect, no work done.
Joe
My teeth were strong and cavity-free during my childhood, a mess of fillings and crowns now; a stint of homelessness and concomitant lack of tooth care when I was a young adult was the tipping point, and despite plenty of brushing and flossing now, it’s just a matter of time before my teeth will be completely artificial. All four wisdom teeth were especially problematic, growing upside down or sideways.
They were never straight, though I’m fond of their particular snaggledness; my eyeteeth are turned such that they look like vampire fangs (to the point where I’ve had goth kids and LARPers ask where they could get it done too). I might be weird on this, but I find a bit of a snaggle attractive-- a pretty smile is all the prettier when there’s a crooked tooth or whatever.
From the other thread which I mistook for being the same as this one:
I’m American, I never wore my retainer* so my teeth do not overlap past the canine teeth and my teeth are a little yellow. I cover my mouth sometimes when I get worried whether they’re showing at all (I rarely talk with my teeth and never smile with them).
Oops - I didn’t read the OP before voting. My teeth are slightly discoloured and slightly crooked, and I consider them just fine. It’s all the crowns and root canals that bother me.
I have no idea how good my teeth are naturally, I’ve sucked my fingers all my life. They’re strong I guess.
Just have fortunate teeth. I do use whitening mouthwash and the occasional whitening, but I do it for the squeaky-clean feel and clean breath
I’ve had braces, but due to a brief period of time when I didn’t wear my retainers every night (I lost them), a crowded tooth that had been pushed into place by my braces moved back again to its original spot.
Someone once told me that I’d have to wear my retainers for damn near the rest of my life. Fuck that. My teeth are straight enough, I don’t want to mess with them anymore. I’m more concerned about health issues (cavities and whatnot) than how straight they are.*
*I do know that the two can be connected, but I think my mouth is such that I don’t really have to worry about slight lack of straightness causing any serious issues.
You left an option out of the poll: “I no longer have my own teeth.”
I wish I’d kept my retainer. I had braces in the 70’s, when I was a young adult. Now it’s 30 something years later and my bottom teeth have shifted from straight to quite, quite crooked:( which look stupid and are a pain to keep clean and flossed. Also they are quite yellow, I have to get Whitestrips sometime.
My mom kept her teeth all her life (she did have caps for most of them) and at age 82 they finally had to be pulled (what was left of them) and she had to have dentures made. Lost 14 pounds in 3 months!
As far as an tell, my teeth are pretty good. Ordinary coloration (not unnaturally white, but not unusually yellow), perfectly straight (people ask me if I’ve had braces), no cavities. A small gap between my front teeth, but not ugly, just there. All four wisdom teeth. I’d say I’ve been pretty blessed in the mouth department.
I voted on the “never had straightening, but minor imperfection” choice. My teeth are somewhat crooked, and I wish we’d had money to get braces, but now in my mid-twenties, it’s just a part of my face. I was tempted to choose the “ouch, it’s caused me pain” option, because I have periodic issues with my wisdom teeth - they should have come out, but due to a traumatic time at the oral surgeon, they didn’t, and I don’t think I ever want to go back cringe
I got lucky with teeth. They all grew in straight and I only had two wisdom teeth to pull.
However, as a kid I wanted braces. Seems crazy now, but all the cool kids were getting them. I felt left out. :rolleyes: