Seriously, when is enough enough? Lately I've been even more bedazzled than usual by the spectre of super white teeth dazzling my eyeballs from the little screen that I confess to watching too much of (but I do watch on DVR and eliminate the commercials).Up to a point, I applaud it: the desire to look better. I will even go so far as to say that I took some steps to lighten my teeth a number of years ago. As we got ready for my daughter's wedding, I decided that I needed to do something about my yellowing fangs. So, it came to pass that I had my dentist make trays (molds to fit over my teeth). Then I would put some sort of whitening agent in the trays, press them into place, and leave them on for the night. The process did some temporary good, but I didn't much enjoy sleeping with those things in my mouth, and years later discarded what was left of the whitening agent, for I hadn't used it up in four years or more.
So, I don't have anything against the notion really, but my goodness folks, there needs to be a limit. These days, I am seeing whiter than white, to the point where it looks gaudy and phony to these old eyes. Again, to me and probably not to anybody else on the planet, both Tyra Banks and Steve Harvey looked over-the-top-white on their recent Oprah appearances. I would look at them and then glance back at Oprah to reassure myself that she was showing some common sense. And she was; her teeth seemed to be in the normal-white range, and they sure looked fine to me.
Let's get a grip, shall we? Pearly white is good, but too many mouths are unnaturally white, well beyond pearly, and they just jangle me the wrong way.Having said that, I understand that it's how I see and value this phenomenon, and it may not be, will most likely not be, how most good folk perceive it. But I had to get it off my chest. Thanks for the opportunity.
