Are bad teeth a major turnoff?

[babyfacebandit]

My teeth are one of my biggest insecurities! I DID have braces when I was younger but I broke my retainer and my idiot of an orthodontist assured me they would be ok without one as I'd been wearing it for some time...yeah, so imagine how pissed I am that even after braces they're still not what I think is attractive. I have a small gap in my top teeth and slight over-crowding on my bottom ones. I swear not one of them is even and you know how most people's top set comes over their bottom one? Yep, mine don't. Because of my wisdom teeth (LITERALLY the only teeth in my entire mouth that are aligned perfectly) when I bite down, I have a small gap between my top and bottom. Thank God for Zayn Malik making "tongue smile" acceptable...

But enough about my mouth of horrors, honestly, an attractive smile is pretty much one of the few things considered universally appealing the world over. But just stop and think that apart from looking good, a nice smile gives a person so much confidence. And that is what makes it truly beautiful. I'm constantly accused of being stuck up or people think I'm in a bad mood. The truth is I'm insecure as hell and particularly about my teeth. I'm going to get some serious whitening done once I've taken care of a few things. Having recently spent £160 on two fillings (damn you Redbull) I can tell you it won't come cheap. Honestly as long as your teeth aren't in a total state, you'll be fine. Just do what ever you can to try and maintain the condition of your teeth, so that when you're in a position to get any work done, that's all you'll have to focus on. Look on the bright side, you're 18. Hopefully when you get to my age, you'll be breaking hearts with your pearly whites

[Wade]

Well, since the topic has been broached... I'll share my teeth insecurities too:

I have bad teeth. No... not like "my teeth are a little crooked, " bad. I mean bad.

I was born with something called glycogen storage disease and part of that means I have something called chronic neutropenia, which is a never ending severely compromised immune system. This mostly means I'm highly susceptible to dermatological infections. Sometimes an infection can sprout of from nothing, anywhere. Last year I was in the hospital for 3 weeks because of such an infection on my arm which had actually gone septic. I average 1 to 2 hospital visits a year for such things.

Another area it affects (effects?) is my teeth. My gums are in a constant state of infection, and there's nothing I can do about it. I see a specialist every 3 months, I take daily immune system boosting shots (that help only so much) and I take really, really good care of my teeth. In spite of all that, my smile is really awful. I'm losing all my teeth. The bone that holds my teeth in is disappearing, has been since I was 9 so my teeth move around a lot (very very crooked). I'm told a lot that I, for some reason, look like Steve Buscemi... seriously. When I was a kid I was told that I wouldn't have any teeth by the time I was 20. Well, I still got em' all. They ain't pretty, but they're there.

Funny thing is, my teeth themselves are actually really strong and white (never had a cavity) it's just my gums that are fucked. Last time I went to a gum specialist we talked for the first time about removing eight of my teeth and trying to replace them with implants... and he doesn't even know if they'll work (and he didn't say outright how much it would cost, but he implied that it would be a lot... A LOT).

My teeth are crooked, my gums are red and receding... it really really really really really fucking sucks. The worst part is everyone probably assumes that it's because I don't take care of my teeth. The truth couldn't be further.

I was told by an acting teacher a few months ago that I should give up on acting because of my teeth (it also severely affects (effects?!?!?!?) my speech. Every time I start laughing in public I immediately feel humiliated. And I feel that no one would ever actually want to kiss me, and I honestly couldn't blame them.

So I really hope this is true about personality overcoming bad teeth! I feel embarrassed just sharing this with you all, cause one thing that's nice about this site for me is none of you can see my teeth. But oh well.... it's all about sharing, no?

[Arkansota]

And by bad teeth I dont mean yellow like you dont brush them, I mean someone who needed braces but was never able to get them. I have really bad teeth and my mom got my hopes up and said she would be getting me braces and then plans changed and now I am really really depressed. I was just started to gain a bit of confidence in my appearance and was looking forward to getting my braces but now my self-esteem is back to being low. If I want braces I have to wait till I'm 18 and even then I might not be able to get them

Sorry if this post sounds really whiny, I literally just found out about not getting braces anymore today, it really sucks.

Teeth aren't a factor in the equation for me. Having nice teeth doesn't make someone any more attractive than they would be if they had bad teeth.