In a word: yes. Much whiter than the whites of your eyes at best looks unbalanced and at worst freakish. Do you really want people to notice your teeth before your eyes?
In my opinion, there is a single naturally appropriate focal point for everyone: the face. Within the face, the eyes should be the focus. It’s about respect and communication.
Nicely put and good point! You know I agree about the “focus on the eyes” thing — I’d never before thought about what happens when people get out of hand with the tooth whiteners.
And they are the ‘windows to the soul’!
Definitely! It’s been weird to see friends pop up on Facebook with freakishly white teeth and then read on their “info” that they’re now a dental hygienist or some such thing. Aha!
Isn’t there now a psychological condition for wanting one’s teeth to be too white?
If a little white is good, more must be better, right?
Just two words: Regis. Philbin.
It looks so odd when teeth are whitened to the Chiclet stage. I have eight crowns on my top teeth because of extreme tetracycline damage when I was a child and my doctor was adamant about choosing a colour that wasn’t too white. He also mentioned that people who over bleached lost their enamel and ruined their teeth…he joked that they might as well skip the bleaching and go straight to dentures because in about 19 years most of their teeth would be gone.
lol @ Duchesse…very true!
I am waiting for something that paints on thin, like nail polish or makeup.
When my daughters were very little, the pediatrician recommended taking them off milk because of some serious health problems. While they have not had cavities resulting, their teeth are definitely yellow. I would do the same thing all over again (even though I think it would look a little better if their teeth were as white as the whites of their eyes).
This reminds me of the “Friends” episode where Ross gets his teeth whitened and ends up with glaring, practically glow in the dark teeth. 🙂
My teeth are healthy, but they are just naturally yellow and stain easily – my dad’s are even more prone to staining. I sometimes do Whitestrips for a few weeks, but don’t use them very often because they make my teeth painfully temperature-sensitive.
Hehe, you find the best topics Rebecca! Overly-bleached teeth do look a tad desperate, as if someone is trying too hard . . . on the other hand, overly-white is better than overly yellow. I’m lucky that my teeth are fairly white, a few dentists have asked me if I’ve ever had tooth-whitening done so even they think so! I use the basic Colgate “Total” and it works quite well . . . even with daily cups of coffee/black tea, it seems to keep the stains away but it also could be hereditary.
Funny you should bring this up. I was just thinking the other day how tired I am of the long list of “must-do’s” to be attractive in our culture, teeth whitening being one of them. I’ve never fallen into that mindset, but I imagine it gets exhausting if one really gives into the societal pressure to do everything.
I have noticed that the more popular something is (super-extra-white teeth, for example) the more “normal” it looks and the more “abnormal” the natural look appears. We are so used to artificial appearances, that we don’t even know what real people are supposed to look like. Not knocking all ways to improve appearance…I certainly use some of them if I wish…But Ifor me, the goal is be to enhance natural “beauty” rather than creating a look that’s so artificial.
I think you are right, cg, and then the next thing that happens if often that someone with a great deal of confidence and an entirely unpopular look comes along and blows everyone away with their “natural charm”. LOL We’re so goofy!
@ Kari, hahahahaha, that is EXACTLY hwat I was thinking when I read this!! That is so funny!!!
I noticed that over-whitened teeth make someone’s mouth seem “too-teethy” like they have too many teeth in their mouth…definitely like at least a third more than they should have. do you know what i mean?
I agree with jbandmeintern. There’s a reality “star” I’ve watched on a certain dancing show whose teeth completely take the focus off of her face. Instead I’m hypnotized by how large and unnaturally white her teeth look. However, I must admit that those whitening strips at Costco are on my unnecessary-things-I-want list. 😉 Just once can’t hurt… right? Perhaps that is how the addiction begins.