Where did all the human teeth go?

Have some of your favorite celebrities start looking a bit strange Recently? Like there’s something different about their face, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Or maybe you can easily put your finger on it: their natural, slightly crooked teeth have been transformed into identical, perfectly even, perfectly white, possibly slightly too big to grind their mouths. From K-pop idols to Hollywood A-listers, dental aspects are becoming more and more common among the rich and famous.

However, not everyone is so eager for the unique, bright white, perfectly straight teeth. Many people have transferred to social media in recent months to argue that veneers take away the personality of your face and can completely change your appearance. Aram (@aramnotagoat), whose tweet called for an end to the “epidemic of horse tooth faces” it went viral, tells Dazed that veneers take away from the charm of natural teeth and that they just end up looking “big and stupid.” Not to mention the fact that they can negatively affect the way we see our own smiles. “I was probably 12 when Disney had Demi Lovato fill her gap with veneers, basically telling a generation of kids that these natural variations in teeth are undesirable, even if your favorite stars have them,” she says.

It was first invented in 1928, veneers were developed in Hollywood as a way to change an actor’s appearance for a film shoot. However, it wasn’t until the early 80s that they began to gain popularity. Getting veneers involves shaving off the enamel of your teeth and then placing a shell to cover the surface. It is a permanent procedure and once patients receive them they cannot go back to their natural teeth. Improving the overall appearance (discoloration, cracks, gaps, etc.) is by far the main attraction, but the cosmetic dentist Dr. Sam Jethwa he says they can also be used for non-esthetic reasons, such as strengthening weakened or broken teeth. While the ‘perfect’ smile may look quicker and more achievable with braces veneers, porcelain veneers will cost you between £500 and £1,000 per tooth in the UK.

More than one in ten people (14 per cent) in the UK said a Chelsea and Fulham Dentist survey that they would pay for veneer if they could afford it. “The increasing emphasis on dental aesthetics in the media and social platforms has led to increased awareness and demand for cosmetic dentistry procedures, with veneers emerging as a leading choice,” Dr. Stephen Dodd says Dazed.

When veneers aren’t done, however, Dr. Jethwa warns, they can negatively affect the health of your teeth, as well as their appearance. “Veneers can look unnatural when they are too big for a person’s face, are a bright pantone white, or are incredibly thick and have almost no gaps between the teeth,” she says. Teeth are a big part of one’s appearance. So when they look fake or unnatural, it can cause a feeling of unease or that something is wrong, even if you can’t pinpoint what it is. “Why do celebs wear their veneers so straight and so white…it seems such an uncanny valley,” as a Twitter said the user. Comments of “uncanny valley” also filled it chloe cherry video, who put on fake veneers as part a Halloween costume.

The term “Uncanny Valley” was coined by Masahiro Mori in the 1970s. It is described as the feeling of unease that comes in response to robots that look too human. While celebrities in shiny white veneers aren’t robots, they can evoke a similar feeling of dread. “Smiles are part of the overall message the face gives and are extremely important in our reaction to someone we meet,” says cognitive psychologist Stephanie Lay. “One aspect of face perception is that we do not process them ‘piece by piece’ but as an entity at once. To find a reliable face, there must be a consistent correspondence between all the elements that make up the face – if one part is off [place] with the rest, then we find the face unsettling and strange.”

How we interpret faces depends largely on how the features look in combination. This is part of why veneers on otherwise “normal” looking celebrities are so disturbing. On the other hand, when celebrities exercise with their natural smile they give the opposite effect. “Imperfect, crooked or gapped teeth can make someone look more natural and human,” she says psychologist Alyssa Roberts. “Perfection tends to look manufactured. Those little quirks and flaws make people seem authentic.” Since the recent oversaturation of veneers in Hollywood, many fans have started praising celebrities such as Ethan Hawke, Kristen Dunst, Barbara Palvin and Lewis Hamilton which still have their original incomplete teeth.

Professor Nicholas Rule, Vice-President Academic and Dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga, studies the psychology of persons and agrees that teeth play a big role in how we perceive others. One of his studies finds that the attractiveness of someone’s smile contributes to how happy we perceive them to be. “Our hypothesis was that people with unattractive smiles may appear happier when smiling because it may take more time to overcome embarrassment about their smile to display it to people,” he says. “What we actually found, however, was that people with attractive smiles were perceived as happier, which we attribute to what’s called the ‘attractiveness halo effect’ in psychology: the phenomenon in which good-looking people are perceived as universally better at everything things. .”

saw the tweet about his veneers and had to see for myself….. feel sick to my stomach. What are we doing to our handsome kings pic.twitter.com/zktKg1lHFS

— Grace (@gracecamille_) December 10, 2023

So even though critics claim that veneers look ugly, Rule challenges this by saying that we often associate people who are wealthy enough to get these procedures as attractive, if only subconsciously. “More attractive people appear more successful and, indeed, end up earning significantly more over their lifetimes. To the extent that veneers improve appearance, this could certainly help. In addition, detecting that someone has veneers on their teeth can also lead to the perception that they are wealthier because it shows that they can afford them,” he says. Veneers, then, can serve as a status symbol and indicator of wealth and perceived success.

In our current culture where all the unique quirks and “flaws” in our appearance must exist flattened and faded into an overall bland appearance, it can be difficult to have small “flaws” and distinctive features. But fAces should be different and interesting. It’s our unique aspects that make us who we are, and anything that gives our face character and charm – including slightly chipped teeth – should be celebrated.