I grew up in the 1990s and just about every student in my class with crooked teeth had braces. I'd say our school was solidly middle class.
I never gave it a second thought until I got in trouble for not doing homework for several weeks. I had to quit all extracurriculars. My parents were called in, and my teacher chided me. I'll always remember her saying, "I'll take you down to the west side [bad part of town] and you can see how many kids are wearing braces down there." (In other words ... get your shit together, because you're privileged.)
At what point did braces become a sign of privilege? My dad's parents weren't particularly well-off, but they managed to afford braces for one of their sons (in the 1950s).
I know Americans are obsessed with teeth, but today whenever I see someone with crooked or spaced out teeth, I assume they didn't have a privileged upbringing.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 14, 2021 2:25 AM |
Probably when dentists realized they could make a lot of money by convincing people to spend money on braces.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 13, 2021 1:07 AM |
I grew up in a lower-middle class/working class community in the 1970s. Few kids had braces and they were a bit of a novelty. Unknown to me, my family dentist had advised my parents that my own teeth were horribly uneven and out of line. I never had braces.
Fast forward to university in the 1980s. Most of my classmates there came from more affluent homes, and at least a third of them had braces as children.
It was a fairly expensive proposition then.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 13, 2021 1:08 AM |
R1 Yeah, I think you have it. I worked at an elementary school for quite a while and the amount of dental work children had was shocking, compared to what I remember.
OP, I disagree with your theory that people with crooked or spaced out teeth couldn't grow up "privileged."
I grew up in a solidly middle class community, but I don't remember people getting braces for slight imperfections. Yeah, if their teeth were totally fucked up, of course they got braces. I've been seeing the same dentist since I was a teenager and he does not recommend braces for mild imperfections (his office is in the wealthier part of town, and his clientele reflects that). I have a bit of crowding on my bottom row of teeth (nothing crazy) and he never once brought up getting braces when I was a teenager. Of course, if your teeth are actually super fucked up and super crooked/spaced, he'll recommend them... but for mild imperfections that largely aren't noticeable? Why bother?
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 13, 2021 1:12 AM |
It was after my time, I can tell you that.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 13, 2021 1:15 AM |
You're asking the question backwards, OP. Braces were a sign of privilege from the 50's through at least the 80's, and probably even the 90's in some areas (as your story confirms). So your question should be when did braces stop being a sign of privilege. I'd say in the last 20 years or so, when they became much more common place.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 13, 2021 1:15 AM |
Don't people have dental plans to pay for them?
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 13, 2021 1:17 AM |
We were middle class, but my brother got braces in the 1960s. My father nearly lost his mind when I showed him my brother's orthodontist's house (Scotch Plains, NJ, brand new modern) in the NYT Magazine at some point while my brother was still in braces.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 13, 2021 1:18 AM |
True, r5. I guess I figured before a certain point, only a small amount of even the upper classes had braces. But that said, I have no knowledge of the history of orthodontics
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 13, 2021 1:21 AM |
i have spent over 10,000 trying to fix my sons teeth over the years. he has horrible dental hygiene plus bad genetics. We are middle class. Sometimes parents try hard but it still doesn't work. I know people judge him based on his teeth.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 13, 2021 1:25 AM |
I’ve always liked Emma Thompson’s imperfect teeth.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 13, 2021 1:38 AM |
The naivite of DLers is oftentimes mindblowing.
Your father likely had some sort of insurance plan through his employer that covered orthodontia OP. The poor people on the other side of the tracks did not.
Most kids I grew up with had them at some point during the early adolescence. They've gotten much less intrusive looking.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 13, 2021 1:50 AM |
In what way am I naïve, r12?
So what if he had insurance? That's the point, no? Having insurance made us privileged.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 13, 2021 1:54 AM |
R5 is correct. They’re common now.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 13, 2021 1:56 AM |
I think Emma Thompson's teeth in that photo represent about as fucked up as you can get with teeth without looking bad. They're imperfect but I wouldnt be surprised someone with that amount of tooth imperfection chose to skip the braces.
The problem is if your teeth look like that and you're 12, chances are they're only getting far more fucked up. There are also huge self esteem implications for people with very crooked teeth. There's nothing wrong with getting them fixed
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 13, 2021 2:00 AM |
They’re extremely common now, and I agree they are a normalized part of American culture (even though a vast chunk of our population sadly cannot afford them). It is definitely an American thing. After all the stuff with Epstein, I ended up reading the book Ghislaine was papped reading in LA — it is a history of the CIA and its mysterious Book of Honor. In it, I clearly remember an American agent discussing how one of the first thing he did with new agents was get them to have their teeth fucked up, sometimes hiring a dentist to remove a tooth or twist teeth or even chip a tooth purposefully. He said they would stick out like a sore thumb when abroad because of American dentistry, so that story alone shows it is now normalized, at least as compared with the rest of the planet. Our healthcare system is as fucked up as our justice system.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | March 13, 2021 2:34 AM |
I think if you were a kid in the 90's, it was just a thing of our generation. Absolutely everybody had braces. My dad always felt that teeth were extremely important in how you are perceived. Now as an adult paying for my own dental care, I didn't realize how costly it all is. 2 cavities cost me $800 over the summer..
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 13, 2021 5:08 AM |
"At what point did braces become a sign of privilege?"
I don't know, 1990s to the present?
That's when declining real income really started to bite into traditional middle-class lifestyles, and employers started cutting benefits for dependents, and health insurance benefits including dental.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 13, 2021 6:52 AM |
Then there’s the whole era of “Adult Braces” that was its own fad. It seemed like I knew a few people who had pulled themselves up from basically poverty and didn’t have the option to get them as kids who flaunted them as an adult showing that they had made it and achieved a level of financial success and were showing off.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | March 13, 2021 11:38 AM |
Miranda had "adult braces" in the earlier seasons of Sex and the City. That was maybe 1999 or 2000. That makes sense. Where was invasaline back in the day? Braces, brackets, "headgear", rubber bands - this is some barbaric shit. I'm glad I don't have buck teeth and crooked teeth.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 14, 2021 2:06 AM |
I had them in the 70s and my teeth were perfect afterwards. We all had them. Lived in a middle class corporate company town and there was a dental plan. I just got them again! Eventually my teeth got crowded. I didn't go for the Invisalign because they said the wire is faster. They are sharp and I'm afraid to give a blow job to my fuck buddies. I feel stupid to have got them again but its too late.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 14, 2021 2:25 AM |
