If Emily grew up so rich...

[chiccy]

Let's all take in the British royals' teeth, contemplate their wealth, and then the status of their teeth.

The current (young) generation have better teeth, though. Prince William had/has orthodontia. The fact that the older royals have bad teeth doesn't explain anything. Orthodontia wasn't a thing that wealthy kids did when they were kids, but now it is. So the current young generation does it, in keeping with other rich people in their generation.

[moreorlessnu]

My teeth are perfectly straight and are the color of normal teeth (not blindingly white, but whitish). I've been told many times that I have a pretty smile.

I used to buy those Crest White strips. They worked but they were a pain in the butt to wear for 30 minutes twice per day. Then I found out you can swish hydrogen peroxide in your mouth for a few minutes per day and it has the same effect (google it for the details). Even my hygienist comments on how white my teeth are. Can't believe I used to spend $$ per month on those white strips as compared to the (barely) pennies I spend now. I laugh when Walgreens puts their 16 oz. bottles of hydrogen peroxide on sale for 3/.99, and then I stock up.

Your mileage may vary.

[Tee-Tee]

I didn't recall Prince William having braces, it must have been the time when the press was 'respecting his privacy' after his mother's untimely death. What about Harry or the two girls, Beatrice and Eugenie?

However, he doesn't have the aforementioned 'chiclet' teeth.

My husband grew up in a solidly middle class home and NEVER (repeat, NEVER) went to a dentist until a month before our wedding, when I ever-so-gently told him he might want to get his teeth cleaned. (His TERRIBLE breath helped pushed the convo along--he literally carried a little bottle of listerine with him.) It turned out he had severe peridontal disease (he was 26, FFS!) and was told his teeth would begin to loosen and fall out within five years.

He had to undergo two rounds of novicaine jabs, each going through one quarter of his mouth at a time. They literally had to push back his gums, scrape the plaque that had grown beneath them, and then the poor, cranky fellow got sent to me for luvin' care.'

I was so, so angry at his parents for the longest time. They lived in a beautiful +250,00 homes in nice communities, animals, trips, cars for birthdays...but they couldn't be bothered with taking their three children to the mfing dentist. :twisted:

[chiccy]

I didn't recall Prince William having braces, it must have been the time when the press was 'respecting his privacy' after his mother's untimely death. What about Harry or the two girls, Beatrice and Eugenie?

According to a quick Web search, William, Harry, and Beatrice have all had orthodontic work. Wills had (has?) a hidden permanent retainer-type piece behind his bottom teeth.

[mockingbird]

Ah, okay, I was a little confused. That's terrible they wouldn't do anything to help!! My dentist (well and ortho, same guy) is always asking if I need my retainers adjusted/new ones. My retainers hurt like that now, can't sleep with them, which is why I don't wear them. Okay, I KNOW they wouldn't hurt as much if I wore them all the time (they get better after a few days) but my teeth don't shift much. My dentist knows I don't wear them as much as I should but doesn't seem to care, I guess because it doesn't have a huge effect. If it did I'd rather have one of those hidden permanent ones.

The worst for me was "power chain". Ugggggggh. Thankfully Motrin works really, really well for me because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to function in school. I don't know how I could have avoided it, but it hurt, and the pain lasted for at least a week every time I got it put on.

Anyway, I don't mind small imperfections. I don't think I'd want to put a kid through braces just for cosmetic reasons. What I don't like is when it looks like someone has never gotten ANY dental care in their life and I get mad at the parents, because it can screw you over beyond just cosmetics.

[Witsec7]

I used to buy those Crest White strips. They worked but they were a pain in the butt to wear for 30 minutes twice per day. Then I found out you can swish hydrogen peroxide in your mouth for a few minutes per day and it has the same effect (google it for the details). Even my hygienist comments on how white my teeth are. Can't believe I used to spend $$ per month on those white strips as compared to the (barely) pennies I spend now. I laugh when Walgreens puts their 16 oz. bottles of hydrogen peroxide on sale for 3/.99, and then I stock up.

Your mileage may vary.

I do peroxide 3x a day. I drink black coffee, and its worked like a charm for me for years.

[Mama Mia]

The whole absolutely blindingly white, absolutely perfect teeth is pretty recent, I think. Even in looking at tv shows from the 90's there was a great deal more normal variation.

It seems kind of odd that in some wealthy/upper middle class communities virtually all ( or even most ) of the kids would have braces.. how many of them could have seriously bad teeth.

We had very little money but scraped together enough to get the one kid with horrible teeth braces, one or two others might have been able to use them in order to have a "perfect" smile, but not enough to justify the money and pain. And the rest had teeth that were just fine. It wouldn't seem like any school would have more than , at most, 40-50 % of kids who would need braces, even for purely cosmetic reasons .. right ?

[chiccy]

It seems kind of odd that in some wealthy/upper middle class communities virtually all ( or even most ) of the kids would have braces.. how many of them could have seriously bad teeth. [...] It wouldn't seem like any school would have more than , at most, 40-50 % of kids who would need braces, even for purely cosmetic reasons .. right ?

In my community, anyway, even kids with pretty good teeth would get orthodontic work to make their smiles "perfect." I think part of it was the influence of greedy orthodontists... :|

I don't like the perfectly-straight, perfectly-white, veneers-like look myself. It seems kind of artificial and tacky. I'm actually kind of glad my teeth are moving a bit from the way they were after I had braces.

[clibbyjo]

Ah, okay, I was a little confused. That's terrible they wouldn't do anything to help!! My dentist (well and ortho, same guy) is always asking if I need my retainers adjusted/new ones. My retainers hurt like that now, can't sleep with them, which is why I don't wear them. Okay, I KNOW they wouldn't hurt as much if I wore them all the time (they get better after a few days) but my teeth don't shift much. My dentist knows I don't wear them as much as I should but doesn't seem to care, I guess because it doesn't have a huge effect. If it did I'd rather have one of those hidden permanent ones.

The worst for me was "power chain". Ugggggggh. Thankfully Motrin works really, really well for me because otherwise I don't think I would have been able to function in school. I don't know how I could have avoided it, but it hurt, and the pain lasted for at least a week every time I got it put on.

Anyway, I don't mind small imperfections. I don't think I'd want to put a kid through braces just for cosmetic reasons. What I don't like is when it looks like someone has never gotten ANY dental care in their life and I get mad at the parents, because it can screw you over beyond just cosmetics.

My son got his braces off in 2010. The retainers now are just clear,bendable plastic which is molded to their teeth and slip over the teeth like whitening trays. They fit perfectly and because its soft plastic my son doesn;t mind at all and still wears it everynight. I was told if it rips(the plastic is thin) then a replacement is $100 a set. He has had them 2 years no problems.

My daughter has braces now, and just since my son got his off they have plastic,clear braces instead of metal. The only metal is the chains and she complains they hurt the first day or 2 but then she is fine.

My son had "fangs" and his mouth was too small for them to come down so he needed braces. My daughter had buck teeth from knocking her baby teeth out at age 2. My youngest son has 2 extra teeth and his are all coming in a crooked mess. All of those are cosmetic more than anything else, but I am sure they would be much happier with the smiles they are getting than those they had before braces.

[kb2]

My teeth are pretty straight, but I have some discoloring from too much fluoride. (no it won't kill you, and it just was a case of not thinking how much fluoride I was getting since I didn't live where there was fluoridated water, so we had supplements, my grandparents had fluoridated water, so I was getting it at their house and in any food that they brought over, including jams, jellies and pickles.)

Me too! I thought spitting out your toothpaste when you brushed was really gross as a kid, so I swallowed all of mine until high school. I think that's where I got my extra fluoride. :D

I'm another one who didn't wear her retainer and therefore has crooked teeth. But my teeth started out so bad--huge gap in the middle (like, you could have fit two extra front teeth there), adult canines didn't come in until I was 15, teeth pointed almost horizontally--that the current little bit of overlap between my front two teeth and the next two is like, meh. Orthodontia was always more about being able to chew and bite to me, not having perfect teeth. Besides, my top and bottom molars have shifted together, so if I go back to my removable top retainer I lose my bite.