When you say us Brits have bad teeth what are you basing it on? Evidence?

[Exquisition]

Seems to me I seen a lot of bad teeth all over the world. I spent a quarter of my life living in foreign countries and when it comes to bad teeth I have a hunch it's linked to social demographics.

The USA has a ton of people with teeth issues.

What gives? Where's you proof? And how did this rumour start off in the first place?

 

[Bert Notorius]

limeys?

 

[eric60red]

Bad Breath

 

[Adre]

Spike Milligan poem, English Teeth...

 

[Adre]

Cleo Laine song, English Teeth...

 

[Exquisition]

Spike Milligan poem, English Teeth...

He was one of our greatest comedians ever, no? He was always saying shit with a twinkle in his eye.

 

[Exquisition]

Bad Breath

I'll have you know I use Corsodyl. No bad breath here.

Top 10 consumers of gum by country: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-chewing-gum-consumer-countries.html

 

[parodyluvr75]

You're as British as my enchiladas.

 

[Exquisition]

You're as British as my enchiladas.

me no hablar Ingles senor?

 

[oggbashan]

Pam Ayres

Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth,
And spotted the dangers beneath
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food.
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
To give up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin’.

When I think of the lollies I licked
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.

My mother, she told me no end,
‘If you got a tooth, you got a friend.’
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’
Didn’t seem worth the time – I could bite!

If I’d known I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin’s,
Injections and drillin’s,
I’d have thrown all me sherbet away.

So I lie in the old dentist’s chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine
In these molars of mine.
‘Two amalgam,’ he’ll say, ‘for in there.’

How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin’
It’s me they are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

Taken from the The Works: The Classic Collection 2008.

 

[Exquisition]

Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth,
And spotted the dangers beneath
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food.
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

Remember watching her. Priceless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6g1I37_r1E

 

[Tryharder62]

Quick Wiki - some interesting ideas anyway

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_English_people_have_bad_teeth

 

[blobfish]

Welle, I'm Britishe, and me chompers is polished uppe liek a new thrupenny, they is. We've higher dentalle standards thanne the rest of the wourld, innit.

 

[parodyluvr75]

me no hablar Ingles senor?

Señor?

 

[blobfish]

Quick Wiki - some interesting ideas anyway

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_English_people_have_bad_teeth

Juste so ye knows, Wiki Answers isn't not affiliated withe Wikipedia in no way whatevre, make no mistaek.

 

[Exquisition]

Quick Wiki - some interesting ideas anyway

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_English_people_have_bad_teeth

Thanks Try, you're helping to explode a myth. Not seen much evidence to the contrary yet though.

There has to be a source for this belief. Ideas?

 

[Exquisition]

Welle, I'm Britishe, and me chompers is polished uppe liek a new thrupenny, they is. We've higher dentalle standards thanne the rest of the wourld, innit.

Blob, you're too good at that accent. You have to be an East Londoner.

 

[Tryharder62]

Juste so ye knows, Wiki Answers isn't not affiliated withe Wikipedia in no way whatevre, make no mistaek.

I know but it gave some better ideas as to how it all got started I thought.

 

[Saint Peter]

Now that we have that cleared up, why do you all have such small cocks?

 

[blobfish]

Thanks Try, you're helping to explode a myth. Not seen much evidence to the contrary yet though.

There has to be a source for this belief. Ideas?

It's them yanks whatte withe their unrealistic standards of dentalle hygiene, innit. Just 'cause them brushes e'erday, they thinks we oughter.

 

[Tryharder62]

Thanks Try, you're helping to explode a myth. Not seen much evidence to the contrary yet though.

There has to be a source for this belief. Ideas?

No, I just thought it was interesting about how in WW2 it was a bad time and it is how the myth got propogated. I do not think the British have worse teeth than anyone else. I think it just gets started somehow and it sticks.

Just like the fact that blob cannot remember that I am a woman. What the f is that about?

 

[Exquisition]

Señor?

That tilda thingy is a pain to find and I can't be bothered with the ASCII.

 

[blobfish]

Blob, you're too good at that accent. You have to be an East Londoner.

I's a Geordie I is, born an' raised. We's gotte the best English there is spake in these partes.

 

[blobfish]

I know but it gave some better ideas as to how it all got started I thought.

The thinge about Wiki Answres is thatte it allowes ouriginal research an' 'pinions an' whatnots. That's what Wikipedier don't lette.

 

[oggbashan]

Serious response:

When the National Health Service was set up, the arrangements for dentistry were flawed.

Dentists were paid for work done, not problems prevented. If they didn't drill, they weren't paid. Conservation and preventative dentistry cost dentists money.

They didn't like it, but they had to earn money. So they drilled and filled. The fillings were of cheaper materials than would have been used on private patients and degraded over time so more decay occured around the fillings which had to be removed, a larger hole drilled, and more filling put in - which then degraded, needed removal, more drilling...

The dentists who became expert at fast drilling and filling, even if the work was unnecessary, made money. Those who wanted to care for patients' teeth by preventing decay lost money.

Cosmetic dentistry, such as correction of misalignment, removal of over large teeth and capping, was almost impossible to do under NHS contracts except after extensive letter writing and review by 'experts'. So it didn't happen - unless the patient paid privately.

In the 2000s the NHS contracts for dentists were altered. The changes were supposed to make preventative dentistry financially attractive but the new contracts were a cock-up. Those who had been making money lost out but those who wanted to do proper dentistry still couldn't make enough and the paperwork was enormous.

Thousands of dentists refused to work for the NHS at all and finding an NHS dentist became almost impossible. For many people the cost of private dentistry was prohibitive so they neglected their teeth.

For nearly 60 years dentistry in the UK has been mismanaged by the NHS. It is not surprising that UK people's teeth are worse than in many other developed countries.