The stereotype of yellow, slimy, crooked British smiles may not have teeth any more.

In a study comparing American and English dental health surveys, researchers found that American grins tended to have slightly fewer teeth, and those in lower socioeconomic positions had significantly worse oral health than their British counterparts. And researchers found no differences in participants' perceptions of overall oral health between the two nations. The data, published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ—an annual, light-hearted edition of the British medical journal—suggests that the English may have something to smile about as they sip their teeth-staining tea.

But, there are some cavities in the study. When asked about dental pain, function, and whether their teeth were embarrassing, the English self-reported more problems. The study also lacked data on aesthetics and comparisons of wisdom teeth extraction practices, which may skew the counts of missing teeth.

Researchers looked at dental surveys of adults aged 25 and older in both places, taking education and income into account. For the comparison of oral health by education, the researchers looked at 8,719 surveys from England and 9,786 from the US. For a comparison by income, the researchers had 7,184 surveys from England and 9,094 from the US.

In general, Americans were missing more pearly whites than the Brits, reporting a mean of 7.31 lost teeth compared to 6.97. It seems slight, but the difference was statistically significant.

When the researchers looked at the data by education and income groups, they found that America had a far greater breakdown of oral healthcare in the lower socioeconomic groups than in Britain. The author attributed the greater impact of income and education on oral health in America to a lack of national dental coverage. In the UK, dentistry is largely covered by the National Health Service, the authors note.

In conclusion, the authors find that “[c]ontrary to popular belief, our study showed that the oral health of US citizens is not better than the English.”

The BMJ, 2015. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.h6543 (About DOIs).