Study squashes myth of terrible dentistry as it finds Americans have more missing teeth and worse oral health if poor

Americans do not have better teeth than the English, new research suggests. Experts set out to challenge the idea – dating back more than a century – that the English have poor dental hygiene.



A team from the UK and the US examined data on thousands of people from the English Adult Dental Health Survey and the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They looked for examples of missing teeth, adults’ perceptions of their oral health, and the effect of poor teeth on daily life such as pain, difficulty eating, avoiding smiling and social effects. Levels of education and household income were also examined.

The study showed that the average number of missing teeth was significantly higher in the US (7.31) than in England (6.97), and that people were more likely to suffer poor dental health because of socioeconomic factors if they lived in the US.

“In conclusion, we have shown that the oral health of Americans is not better than the English, and there are consistently wider educational and income related oral health inequalities in the US compared with England,” said the researchers, who included academics from University College London.

They added: “There is a longstanding belief in the United States that the British have terrible teeth, much worse than US citizens. This view dates back at least 100 years, with toothpaste adverts extolling the virtues of American smiles. Contemporary examples of this belief in popular US culture range from The Simpsons to the Hollywood character Austin Powers and his repugnant smile.”

The light-hearted study, titled “Austin Powers Bites Back”, was included in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal.