The Expensive, Exhausting Pursuit of a ‘‘Perfect Smile’’

Whether we are smiling, laughing, crying, yelling, or simply saying “hello,” our teeth are one of the first things people see. For millions of people, this can be a source of shame—something to be covered up in person, edited away in photos, and, when financially feasible, “fixed” at the doctor’s office. As someone who sees a camera and instinctively makes a closed-mouth smile, I’m all too familiar with these anxieties.

In recent years, the beauty world has made huge strides in inclusivity. We’ve seen the standardization of 40-shade foundation ranges (thank you, Fenty Beauty), the rise in size-, gender-, and age-diverse casting, and the much-needed increased accessibility of products for folks with disabilities. Despite these major improvements, however, many beauty standards remain fixtures in our daily lives, with the “perfect smile” ideal being one of the most prominent—and one of the most elusive. But dental care, both essential and cosmetic, is woefully inaccessible for millions of people in America, oftentimes due to the prohibitive cost; this is yet another reason “good teeth” have become symbolic of status, access, and wealth.

While you may see the occasional gap in the teeth of a model—more often than not, a model who checks the boxes on many other conventional beauty standards—it is still rare to see someone with, say, crooked teeth or crowding, let alone yellowing or even a less-bright-than-a-Chiclet white. (For celebrities, getting veneers after hitting it big is still practically a right of passage.) In fact, “bad teeth” are often a hallmark of villains—think Jaws of the James Bond universe—and characters intended to be punchlines.

So, how did we get here? And what is the cost—emotional, financial, and time-wise—of getting the “perfect smile”? Below is a snapshot of modern dentistry, including firsthand accounts of adult braces wearers and a day in the life of one of Hollywood’s biggest dentists.

Image by VASYL MYKHAILENKO / Getty Images