Let us rise from our recumbent position on the dentist’s contoured recliner for a moment and look at teeth not in the direct illumination of the dental examining light, but in the warm glow of contemporary society’s preoccupation with appearance, self-improvement and self-deception. Here, beyond the clinical surroundings, definition has come full circle. Focus has returned to glorification of the tooth. Their totemic power suggest, if not bestow vigour and infrastructure, of moral and social decay, but again symbols of power and glamour, and the mouth itself, the ultimate consumer accessory. As a body part, the mouth is one of the progenitors of the self –improvement movement. The public was spending vast sums on crowns (in lay terms, “caps”) and braces before anyone ever heard of ab flexors, health clubs or liposuction.

The modern era of tooth veneration was born of postwar prosperity and optimism. The free world had much to smile about, and everyone wanted a smile as bright, straight, and uniform as a row of identical suburban homes. Owning that dream mouth was suddenly affordable. As swords were beaten into dental drills, dentists became agents of assimilation. Even as the fight against tooth decay escalated, waged by a public energized by toothpaste commercials and sublimated Cold War fears, dentistry devoted more attention to cosmetic concerns.
But ambivalence was at work, one whose antecedents we have seen in antiquity. Even with pain banished the patient’s relationship with the dentist remained unsettled, a confusing blend of gratitude and antipathy. Let us examine the rich historical residue of these conflicted emotions.
Hollywood can claim title as the uncrowned capital of cosmetic dentistry, thanks to the demands of the film industry. Stars required perfect teeth and dentists were essential for realizing the illusion Hollywood strove to create. Even child star Shirley Temple had her teeth capped to enhance her photogenicity. Years later she described how she lost her two front caps after sneezing, shutting down production on a film until the caps could be replaced.
Perhaps the film community resented this dental dependency. How else to explain the legacy of unsightly film that Hollywood left on dental work or its habit of denigrating dentists onscreen?
Tinsel town auteur could make little claim for originality in this department. Visual artists had turned their attention on dental practices centuries before Hollywood’s heyday, often portraying its practitioners in a less than flattering light. When art turned its attention to dentistry, typically it was the dentist, not the artist who suffered. Today these paintings serve as historical records documenting how proto-dentists conducted their trade. We can only hope future historians don’t employ Hollywood fines, or the work of early photographers, in the same manner.
As the art and science of photography developed in the mid-nineteenth century, the lens of the new invention was turned on the dental parlor. Staged comic scenes were especially popular, portraying dentists in the most sadistic and incompetent light. They were pictured, for example using heavy tools and brutal methods to perform dental procedures on terrorized patients. Others were shown employing bizarre gadgets in scenes satirizing the day’s obsession with electrical therapy devices recommended for toothaches and other maladies. The photos were often created in stereo views made for enjoyment as home entertainment, much like today’s television.
Dentists were also the frequent butt of vaudeville comedy. In the early days of moving pictures, these comic routines were often recreated for film. The popularity of films doomed vaudeville and also brought down the curtain on the live street performances and traveling dental and medicine shows of the late nineteenth century. But the new medium proved more than capable of taking up where vaudeville comedians left off.
But what is the point of all this jargon? I would not be surprised if the reader is lost. So, simply put, while facial beauty has had the leading influence on dentistry, the modern approach has recognised the great importance of general health in relation to oral health, mass prevention strategies and economics, which incidentally have a special place in Guyana’s dental programmes promulgated by the Ministry of Health.
Written By Dr. BERTRAND R. STUART DDS