As a child, I wore a retainer for a few years because I had a severe overbite. I still do, although I can no longer stick my whole thumb behind the gap between the top and bottom rows when I bite down. Everyone I knew seemed to have braces or track braces. I get a lot of targeted ads for Invisalign and teeth whitening kits, and to this day, even though I’m happy with how I look, I’m still a little paranoid about my teeth. I know they are not “good teeth” by societal standards. However, every time social media tries to pollute my timeline with videos of people getting veneers, I’m thankful to keep my mouth shut.
A veneer is a layer of material placed over a tooth, often to improve its aesthetics and protect against wear. Invented in 1928, the procedure was first used on actors during the first boom in Hollywood productions and would later become popular in cosmetic dentistry. Today, custom veneers are popular to completely change one’s smile. They are cemented to the front of your existing teeth, which are often ground down to make room for the replacements. The procedure is often extremely expensive, with the average per tooth in the UK reaching £500-1000 per tooth. Prices are falling drastically in places like Turkey, where it has become popular for Brits to travel abroad for the procedure.
Celebrities have had major dental makeovers for years, from Tom Cruise to Kylie Jenner. Usually, this involved braces and hard bleaching, but veneers have always been part of the process for many. Today, it’s just cheaper, more openly discussed and publicly demanded. This is largely because of what we see in celebrities. They are the first canvases of the cosmetic trends that threaten to overwhelm us all. And it seems that veneers became popular in a short time. Well, that or they just become hard to ignore.
The idea of ”perfect teeth” is a powerful image ingrained in our minds for decades, even centuries. With the increasing advancement of dental care and cosmetic options being more affordable than ever before, the standards for what are considered “bad teeth” have risen drastically. Are your teeth a bit crooked? Do you have an overbite? Do any teeth overlap? Is it a color other than blinding white? Are there gaps? All things that happen naturally are increasingly considered unacceptable or even a sign of poor hygiene and ugliness. So, of course, an industry that demands impossible standards of beauty and commercializes any aspect of the pursuit of that “perfection” is big on veneers.
Veneers are like beacons that invite us to stare. While many cosmetic procedures come with reasonable denial – hey, they could have lost all that oral fat naturally, right? – veneers often look gaudy. They are too neat, too white, too big for the mouth. When someone smiles, you can’t look away. There is an unusual quality to the veneers. They just look too perfect. Everyone has different ideas about beauty, but I really don’t understand anyone who thinks these veneers look good. I have yet to see a set, even in the mouths of A-Listers with more money than sense, that didn’t scream “fake”. Teeth shouldn’t be like this, so when they shine like untouched porcelain and line up to the millimeter, how can we not call foul? The most insidious aspect of these restrictive beauty standards is how they demand homogeneity for everyone, regardless of race, gender, size, or nature. They all do the same job and with veneers you would swear they are all given the same mold. There is nothing natural or truly beautiful about it. Every face becomes an advertisement for veneers, and it doesn’t take much for everyone else to start panicking because their perfectly normal, healthy, stunning teeth are wrong.
The less often discussed problem with veneers is how harmful they actually are to one’s health. Filling your teeth, shockingly, can make you prone to infection. Remove your natural enamel and it won’t come back. You are leaving your nerves dangerously exposed and this could result in root canals galore. Many people who go to foreign countries for the procedure to save a few teeth have reported pain and cosmetic problems, but it is too late to fix it because now they have no real teeth left except stems. Fillers can dissolve. Breast implants can be removed. You cannot restore your normal teeth to their previous state with veneers.
This process is designed in part to convey an image of health, but that’s not how teeth work. You can live a completely sinless life and your teeth will not remain the color of cotton sheets. It’s okay for them to yellow to some extent. This doesn’t mean you neglect taking care of yourself. Veneers are like another way to screw most of us because we aren’t rich.
I have no doubt that veneers are a trend. It is, unfortunately, like everything else in the world of beauty. 20 years ago, it seemed like every famous woman was getting breast work, and now many of them have openly discussed having their implants removed and regretted following the crowd in a potentially deadly fashion. BBLs are removed, fillers are dissolved. But everything is being replaced with a new trend, whether it’s liposuction, jaw implants or fox-eye lifts. There will always be a new way to let the world know that we are not good enough and that we must spend inordinate amounts of time, money, and emotional labor to fix the unbreakable. It’s just a shame that many people will be hurt during this explosion of hype, including young people who already have to deal with the tyranny of Instagram Face and the algorithms designed to inspire self-loathing. We’re sure to hear some horror stories over the next few years from veneer patients in pain and Hollywood’s backlash. Until then, maybe stick to the thread and ignore your targeted ads.
