Julia Ruggiero

Smile!

Julia Ruggiero

CAS HI303: Sex, Love, and Family

Professor Blower

May 5th, 2023

Out with Old (Black Teeth) and in with the New (White teeth) due to Industrialization 

The rapid industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries led sugar to go from a luxury reserved for only the elites in society to a widely used good. As a result, sugar consumption increased rapidly due to lower costs and increased packaged foods/preservatives with sugar. Also, a new flour milling and refining technique was developed during this time. This development made it so that people ate softer foods; these foods failed to stimulate enough saliva secretion to act as a natural deterrent for plaque buildup. Due to these two developments, black teeth were no longer just for royalty; regular old folks could now partake in bad dental health, too (2). Miskell illustrates the rapid increase in sugar consumption as follows: "Per capita consumption of sugar increased from 38 pounds per year to over 60 pounds during the course of the 1880s alone." (2) The increase in sugar consumption created an epidemic of tooth decay, leading the masses to have rotating black teeth. 

No longer was tooth decay viewed as a status symbol, with the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction, with white teeth being the new ideal. Some say that the ever-changing ideal for teeth is not a response to statutes but to innovation. Of course, as new inventions are created, the statutes changes, but the reason prompting innovation is wealthy people wanting to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. In an eighteenth-century recipe book aimed at gentlewomen, a recipe for a teeth-whitening paste was included (3). As this book was aimed at gentlewomen (women of high standing), including a teeth whitening paste illustrates that affluent people of the period now fancied white teeth.

When there is a demand, supply answers, so with the elites growing demand for white teeth, new products were being developed to answer their demands. Colgate introduced a new toothpaste that was packaged in a jar and available as a powder or a paste in 1873 (4). Jones explains the cost of Colagtes new jar of toothpaste "Selling toothpaste in jars was expensive; the cost of one jar was equivalent to half a day's wage for a manual worker in the U.S in 1890." (4) Once again, elite Americans could use their teeth as an indication of their wealth, as the working class could not afford expensive toothpaste to turn their teeth white. Expensive toothpaste would be short-lasting, with prices falling in the late 19th century. 

In 1896, Colgate launched the collapsible toothpaste tube, leading to a sharp fall in prices and facilitating mass production. With this invention came the mass production and intensive advertising campaigns of toothpaste.

The Boom

  The 20th century brought extreme growth in the consumer dental care industry, not for cosmetic/beauty reasons but for health purposes. In the early 20th century leading toothpaste brand Colgate was marketed primarily as a type of healthcare product with their tagline "good teeth-good health," illustrating this point. Colgate advertisements from the early 20th century proclaim the healthcare benefits citing dentist testimonials and the toothpaste plague-fighting agent. Although this is how the advertising campaigns started in the 1920s, promoting toothpaste's cosmic benefits became increasingly popular (2). 

With the 1920s came the rise of modern consumer culture; people now had the opportunity to buy things with credit cards making advertisers no longer have to prove their product's worth by promoting its benefits, but now they could sell a product by praying on consumers' hopes and fears. So goodbye to the old toothpaste advertisements with dentists' stamp of approval and hello to the new advertisements covered with happy homemakers. 

 Miskell explains the new advertisements as follows: "Consumers were urged to buy brands like Listerine and Pepsodent, not to protect their teeth or gums against decay, but to avoid the social excursion or romantic rejection caused by "halitosis."" These advertisements (like the ones seen below) preyed on women's fear of being alone. Without the products, one would go unfulfilled and grow old alone, but a husband would suddenly appear with one quick purchase of Listerine or Colgate.

These advertisements constantly bombarded people because "by the 1930s, the proportion of advertising expenditure to net sales was higher for toothpaste than almost any other consumer product."(2). So the most common thing people in the 1920s and 1930s saw being advertised was clean, white teeth. As displayed through the ads, hygiene was becoming increasingly more associated with beauty. As a result, toothpaste brands increasingly marketed on making their users more attractive with whiter teeth and fresher breath (4). Another development that helped in the development of the straight white teeth standard was the movies.

Teeth on the silver screen    

Through the medium of movies, new ideals were being spread through the screen as movie theaters became increasingly more accessible in the twentieth century. Jones describes movies' ability to influence ideals as follows: "Movie theaters reached almost every American town, diffusing new lifestyles and creating a new celebrity culture around movie stars that exercise a powerful influence on how beauty, especially female beauty, was defined." (4). The Silver screen contributed to the development of a new American ideal. In addition to having white teeth, you should also have straight teeth. Schroeder describes the new aesthetic/ideal "the smile aesthetic was no longer to be satisfied with mere whiteness. The aesthetic now asked that teeth be evenly spaced, and of an even length." (5) 

In the Silver Screen era, Charles Pincu cultivated the famous smile that consisted of perfectly straight, white teeth for the stars. Walt Disney and Judy Garland were among the many people he worked with during his career. For Garland, he used tooth caps to get her simile which was initially dotted with gaps to her trademark perfectly straight simile. Americans loved what they saw on screen and wanted the perfectly straight smile, too—leading to the emergence and popularization of braces.

The Emergence of Braces 

 In America, braces started to appear on mouths in the 1950s. These revolutionary devices were viewed as alien and strange. In a 1953 issue of Seventeen magazine, a teenage writer tells all about her experience with this new invention describing the device as "hardware." She goes on to explain that the bulky equipment is not appealing, but the end goal of perfectly straight teeth will be worth the hardship (6). These bizarre new devices transfixed parents and children alike. At a child's birthday party, braces made the birthday girl the belle of the ball, with everyone asking her about her braces or looking into her mouth to see said braces (7). Although braces were present in the 50's, they were not popular due to their cost and appearance (making braces a marker for a high social status during this time). Also, braces in this period were very bulky, consisting of a band that would have to be placed around the head and worn for 12 hours a day (8). In 1959 having braces for one year (which was considered "light dental work") would set an American household back 500 dollars which is 6,241 dollars today (9). If one needed more extensive dental work (having braces for three years), it would cost 1,800 dollars which is about 22,000 dollars today—these high costs made having braces rare, which accounts for the mystique surrounding them in this period.

This mystique was short-lived. With the '60s and '70s bringing braces for everyone. Due to the invention of using stainless steel in braces and dental insurance being more widely provided, the popularity of braces increased(10). However, they were still very costly and seen as a status symbol among young Americans(11). Due to the increase in braces in America, they also began appearing in the media. One example of braces on the TVscreen in the 70s is Marcia Brady in the Brady Bunch. Portrayed in the clip is one of the predicaments of having braces, not being able to eat spaghetti. Although the issues may be minor, the talk surrounding braces in the clip illustrates how many people thought about braces in the 70s. Viewed by Marcia as ugly; her thoughts echo how many Americans viewed braces (as ugly but necessary to achieve the ideal).In the episode Marcia tries to hide her braces behind her teeth because she is embarrassed and thinks that her boyfriend will no longer like her if he sees her braces. 

Although braces were viewed as an embarrassing part of childhood, a rising amount of adults were getting braces in the 70’s. In 1975 it was reported that one out of every ten orthodontic patients was in fact an adult(12). Adults that missed out on getting braces in their childhood, still wanted what was deemed “the American smile”. The “American smile” was perfectly straight teeth, with no gapping or imperfections. To get this simile adults who had an increasingly disposable income decided to take on orthodontic work to fix self deemed imperfections. One orthodontist described the increase in orthodontic work as an issue of the rising importance placed on looks in America(12). Braces remain as one of the most popular mechanisms to achieve the “silver screen smile” or the “American rican smile” today. 

What's the next ideal for Teeth?

Braces are becoming increasingly popular. According to the Orthodontics Association, 3.5 million teens and kids began wearing braces yearly(). With the growing number of brace faces out there being in the millions, braces signifier as a status symbol is starting to wane. Making elite figures in society push for a new ideal to develop. 

So as it always does, a new ideal for American teeth will develop in braces' wake. What will the next ideal be? Americans could turn to having their teeth surgically altered, like in an America's Next Top Model episode where a model had a gap between her teeth surgically widened. As models are a signifier of beauty in American culture and for centuries Americans have been trying to emulate them(models), this is not a far stretch.  Or teeth gems could become the new trend for American smiles.  Teeth gems offer a way for the wealth to physically put their wealth into their teeth by adding diamonds or other precious gems into their mouths.

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