Nothing inherently wrong with an individual getting veneers or cosmetic surgery, but I really liked this article and its discussion of some of the things that have been on my mind lately as I start to age and reconsider how much I’ve been affected by social ideas around how we’re supposed to look (and as my teeth become slowly more tea-tinted).
“These perfect, inhuman teeth embody a phenomenon that I am calling “hotness creep.” Hotness here is emphatically not about beauty — which is rooted in nature and often results from an unexpectedly pleasing assembly of imperfections — and it’s not about being sexy: messy, raw and alive. Hotness, by this definition, cannot be achieved through regular means, e.g. a combination of genetic luck, fitness and nutrition; hotness here must be bought and rigorously maintained through laborious, expensive and possibly dangerous upkeep“
I still cringe thinking about it. My dentist was our neighbor (not the surgeon though). I remember one weekend my mom was worried it was getting infected and called him. He said … oh… I’ll meet you a my office in a 1/2 an hour. He’s happy to take a look and is marveling at how great a job the other guy did. It was fine and he charged us nothing. That was all back in the days medical people were more focused on care and treated patients like people not profit centers.