Why do Americans think Britons have bad teeth?

I don't know anyone with bad teeth.





Where did the stereotype come from?

Why do Americans think Britons have bad teeth?
Cos we have our own and dont pay for those plastic white things that dazzle you when they open their mouth ..........
Reply:hmm i dont know if i had to guess i'd say Austin Powers...lol no i really dont have any idea, i just couldnt resist
Reply:I just learned something...I am an American and I never thought of Brits like that. Is it in your water???? hmmmmm
Reply:I don't know where it originally came from, but in some movies(obviously made in America), they show britains with bad teeth. Like Shanghai Knight and Gangs of New york.
Reply:well Britons do smoke and drink alot. Britons have a lower population so maybe those they see have bad teeth
Reply:Its just a stupid stereotype. Not all Americans think that, just as not all Brits have bad teeth! LOL





There are petty provincialists on both sides of the pond. Don't be one of them.
Reply:Actually, what I am told by friends that grew up in the UK, it is far from a false stereotype. Much like fads and reasons to tease in school exist in every culture, one of the big causes for ridicule was wearing braces, at least for men. Colleagues of mine who have lived their entire lives in metro-London have said that showing up in school with a shiny pair of braces was pretty much your golden ticket to getting chased home every single day of the school year. Thus, it was considered better to have crooked teeth than to be beaten up every day.





The other thing is that it seems that Brits still love their cigarettes more than their American counterparts, and in many cases still avoid filtered cigs altogether. The staining from this habit along with a bit of ambivalence with respect to the resulting color have given most of us reason to believe that teeth are not something of cosmetic consequence to the average Brit.
Reply:Probably because whenever they see a brit they are not wearing teeth braces which seems to be the norm for a lot of american teenage kids.
Reply:er because they do probably.....americans look after their teeth and value a nice smile............most brits don't treat their teeth with half as much respect. Just my opinion............
Reply:let them say what they're gonna say,but tonight I just don't care ;)
Reply:I think the stereotype , as with most stereotypes is pretty accurate. If you take an average American, I would guess that at least 80% wear braces for some period of time during adolescence. It's probably less than 10% of Brits, and then only for serious realignment and not for general cosmetic purposes.





I don't think it refers to "bad" as in decayed but "bad" in terms of not having a perfectly aligned set of miniature ivory flower pots.





It's mostly a difference in social values.
Reply:It's probably because they are used to those artificially whitened teeth which they all seem to have, not to mention other parts. Many of them seem to be like a kit made up of artificial and enhanced parts.
Reply:It came from the Austin powers movie. I don't think you guys have bad teeth. I've been to Britain before.
Reply:Most of the Americans that I know, being one myself, tend to say that Brits have bad teeth, generally in a response to a Brit saying that Americans are fat.





The belief that Britons have bad teeth comes from the same place where Britons believe that Americans are fat. That place called the land of the stereotypes. Yahoo answers seems to know it well.





No worries.



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