Confession – I haven’t been to a dentist yet here. In general, even though medical care is quality and ridiculously cheap, I am wary of going to a doctor when we don’t share the same mother tongue. Also, dentists don’t x-ray every year here, only once…ever. Plus they don’t do the fluoride clean when you go visit. Plus people’s teeth here are a little scary. Plus, Americans are slightly obsessed with teeth. Plus I am a brat.
Funny enough, I not alone in seeing the difference between American teeth and the rest of the world. You know it is bad when Americans think British actors are wearing false teeth to make a point, and the British actor actually isn’t. So maybe it is more of a British thing. But when I asked Barnaby about the stereotype, he said he had never heard of it before and made me feel like a dork for bring it up.
I remember first hearing about this in the SNL sketch from the 90′s “Hedley and Wyche” with Mike Myers and Chris Farley. Also the dentist in the Simpsons uses the big book of British teeth to scare Lisa into getting braces. And certain modern druggy British singers aren’t helping.
To protest the stereotype, I don’t necessarily think that the British or Belgians have horrible hygiene, just they drink alot of tea/coffee and don’t care so much about a gap forming in between their two front teeth. Or if this gap creates a weird whistling noise that makes me panic in a work meeting, thinking that there is a dying cat wheezing behind the heater, when really my co-worker doesn’t have to open his mouth to breath, he can just reveal his two front teeth.
On the other hand, I completely acknowledge that Americans are a little too obsessed with their teeth. Sanding veneers and bleaching? Madness.
PS – When I described this phenomenon to a Belgian co-worker, she mentioned that at least British may have bad teeth, but the Americans are fat, which is a bigger deal if you are vain.
Ahhh, yes…fat Americans. That argument will NEVER get old…
