• Hegar@fedia.io
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    5 months ago

    a great feeling when your teeth are … clean.

    Yeah I’ve had people describe such a feeling but I’ve never experienced it. Closest I’ve experienced is a pleasant feeling of knowing it’s the maximum time before I have to endure that again.

    white

    I was not raised in the US so that artificial wall of unnaturally blinding white teeth has no value to me. TBH it seems like foot binding, neck-extension or cranial deformation - an extreme status marker that’s fascinating from an anthropological perspective.

    • minnix@lemux.minnix.devOP
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      5 months ago

      artificial wall of unnaturally blinding white teeth

      My teeth are white because I take care of them by brushing and flossing every day, going to the dentist regularly, and I don’t smoke. In other words, just by normal oral hygiene. How being responsible and taking care of your body is comparable to neck extension or cranial deformation doesn’t make sense.

      • Hegar@fedia.io
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        5 months ago

        I wasn’t trying to comment specifically on you or your teeth, it’s just one of those weird things that people notice about our culture, but people from here don’t realize is not the same in other cultures.

        normal oral hygiene

        Cranial deformation is just normal infant care in groups where it’s practiced.

        Many western cultures practice dental hygiene in a way that doesn’t produce the “bleached wall” look that so many in US culture deem high-status. Teeth slowly change color and natural misalignments develop with less need to artificially modify that.

        Teeth in the US are just a way more important site of identity than elsewhere. When people make fun of the US, teeth are often part of it because it’s something we’re way more intense about than other people are.