Warning: Dangerous Stereotypes Ahead

I'm going to skirt the lines of a touchy subject. If you do a Google search for "English bad teeth" you will discover multiple forums of mostly British folks discussing why other people (Americans) think they have bad teeth. In general, the average person in the forum thinks that Americans have hyper-perfect teeth, to a fault, and that Americans invest too much time making teeth whiter and straighter and that Americans think the English have bad teeth because English teeth aren't as white and aren't as straight. The truth is before Austin Powers, I never even thought about it.

That said, we've lived in England for about six months now. Hardly a lifetime but enough to get an opinion: Does everyone have bad teeth? No, not even close. But I can safely say I have seen more utterly shocking grills here than anywhere else I've been in the world. I completely understand where the Mike Myer's inspiration comes from. The odd teeth I have seen may because we live out in the sticks -- in fact, I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with it because when travelling into London and such I don't notice the same thing.

If you read some of the more informed comments in the forums and in various other sources, you get the idea that about 50 years ago there was some more serious dental problems that were prominent in the UK. That has almost entirely been rectified by various approaches like putting chemicals in the drinking water, having more and better dentists, etc. This type of thing would be slower to have an effect in rural areas and I think that is the case where we live.

I started wondering about this after reading the back of a tasty bag of pork crackles. Warnings on pork crackles, no matter how tasty they are, really aren't helping the perception. C'mon Mr. Porky, you are part of the problem. Thank god Austin Powers number 4 is in the works now... soon we will have new British stereotypes so we can forget about the teeth.

Cheers!