Like everyone else, I’m completely bewitched by British actress Aimee Lou Wood and her supersized smile. Beneath her doe-eyed gaze, between her delicate cheekbones, Wood’s natural teeth lend a welcome authenticity to her performance as Chelsea on season three of The White Lotus. And she’s not alone. Charlotte Le Bon, the stunning French Canadian actress who plays Chelsea’s new friend Chloe, has her own mischievous, spiky grin, with natural teeth that humanize her otherwise flawless appearance. Seeing smiles like these isn’t just refreshing: It’s revelatory. Outside of the makeup trailers where they’re fabricated, in Hollywood, imperfect teeth are becoming increasingly extinct.
Much like Barbra Streisand, who refused rhinoplasty for fear it would alter her voice, Wood and Le Bon seem to understand that their authentic smiles can serve as assets. Their performances are more believable because they’re coming from people who look, at least in that one way, like real women. Their teeth are also a cultural tell. White Lotus mastermind Mike White reportedly asked Wood to audition using both her natural accent and an American accent. In a recent interview with On Demand Entertainment, the actor acknowledged that her smile might’ve made it difficult for her to play a convincing American: “No Americans have my teeth!” she said. “I’d have to get veneers! It’s the teeth that give us away.”
She’s right. Cosmetic dentistry has become so pervasive in the US that it seems as though actors, influencers, and other public personalities all rush to fix or replace their old teeth as soon as they get their first big check. Google “celebrities with veneers,” and a bountiful array of images turns up, spotlighting the apparently altered smiles of everyone from Cardi B to Demi Moore and Johnny Depp. “All new cast members arrive here with no money and jacked-up teeth,” Alec Baldwin cracked on the SNL 50 special last month. “But by year three, you better believe they’re getting third-year veneers.” To punctuate his point, Sarah Sherman then popped up with a wild set of fabricated chompers.
Veneers have been around for a hundred years. A primitive version was first invented in the late 1920s, when a dentist called Charles Pincus created fronts to give stars like Joan Crawford and Judy Garland a more screen-worthy smile. I don’t know what they ran back then, but today’s veneers don’t come cheap. According to Jessica Cruz, office manager for cosmetic dentist Victoria Rose Veytsman, a high-quality set can run $3,50–$5,000 per tooth. Yet they’re so coveted that folks will cross borders—health risks be damned—to get them at a discount. Actors in period pieces and character-driven roles can find themselves in a tricky position because their very white, very straight smiles threaten to ruin the illusion. A recent article in The Hollywood Reporter explained how the makeup wizards behind Griselda had to develop several sets of false teeth for Sofia Vergara, whose pre- and post-Modern Family teeth appear noticeably different—dabbing on yellow makeup paint to imbue them with a smoker’s authenticity.
Despite the sticker shock, Hollywood has influenced regular people to think that perfect teeth are a necessary investment, even for the non-famous. A recent GQ feature examined how veneers have become a status symbol, an upgrade that can obscure a past of modest or even scant means. Getting them is a way to take some years off a person’s face, too: Cruz told me that the right set of veneers can make the recipient look 15 years younger. Though cosmetic dentists swear that perfect teeth will give a patient instant confidence, evidence on how orthodontia affects self-esteem is mixed. A 2019 Australian study found that, regardless of severity, orthodontic treatment was not associated with better psychosocial outcomes—in fact, better psychosocial outcomes were observed amongst untreated participants. A few smaller, more recent studies have found a marked improvement in self-image.
Even so, the US cosmetic dental market is expected to double over the next 10 years. If our parents have the means, our teeth are one of the first things about ourselves we tend to correct: The American Association of Orthodontists now recommends that children begin orthodontic evaluations around the age of seven. Three of my more public-facing friends have gone for a second round of braces in middle age; sometimes, I find myself longing to join them, as the three long years of painful lip-snagging heavy metal I endured during my adolescence have lost their efficacy over time. Wood and Le Bon’s White Lotus costar Natasha Rothwell has a gorgeous smile—one she admittedly perfected in recent years by wearing braces behind her teeth while she was on Insecure.
But it’s also hard not to be inspired by foreign-born beauties like Wood, Le Bon, Cynthia Erivo, and Melanie Lynskey, whose confidence is as contagious as their smiles. Back in 2007, a then 22-year-old Keira Knightley told CBS News that she dodged an edict to fix her “wonky teeth” when she began her acting career. Today, she has a sense of humor about them. On a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she used her teeth to accurately pluck out the notes to Cher’s “Believe” in front of Cher herself. Would veneers have the same ring to them?
Like all trends, the case for imperfect smiles comes around every so often, sparking discussion about externally imposed beauty standards. But this conversation really has teeth—maybe because pursuing a public career with the smile you were born with has become so unusual. “All I ever do is take the piss out of myself,” Wood recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “Even the way [White Lotus fans] are talking about me and my teeth—that I don’t have veneers or Botox—it feels a bit rebellious.”
