Hey, guys? Make peace with yellow teeth. I’m so serious right now.
Every time I visit my parents anymore, they always take time to comment on my appearance and how much it’s changed, for better or worse. I could easily turn this into a fat-positivity post, or nonbinary-positivity, glasses, hair, ect. But the one thing I don’t think I’ve ever seen any positive talk about are yellow teeth.
My teeth are stained yellow. I doubt they will ever be white, and to be honest? I don’t care.
I don’t have cavities. I brush. I pick between them at least once or twice a day to keep them clean. And yet they remain yellow.
I cannot tell you the sheer amount of damage this can cause a person, especially if they keep constantly getting told to brush their teeth every time they visit family. Like… I do. There’s nothing I can do about this. And I don’t really want to.
The only reason I feel any compulsion to whiten them is out of embarrassment when other people look at me weird for smiling at them. And how fucked up is that. I have taught myself subconsciously to suppress any joy or happiness I get when I’m around other people for fear that they’ll see my teeth.
If you see how I draw myself, it’s always with white teeth, even though that’s not true. The only time I’ve ever seen yellow teeth in cartoons, it’s always for the slobby character that doesn’t take care of themself.
I didn’t even realize how much it was damaging me until today, when I caught myself forcing back a smile at work.
Obviously, remember to brush your teeth and keep them healthy. This is not a post about letting yourself fall into disrepair. But if someone has less-than-white teeth, then… okay? And?
I think we should just stop judging people for their appearances in general. People come as they are. That’s all they need to do. Who cares what fucking color their goddamn teeth are.
Addendum to this post because the people in the notes are absolutely correct:
Make peace with crooked teeth.
Make peace with sideways teeth.
Make peace with missing teeth.
Make peace with deformed teeth.
Make peace with teeth that DO have cavities in them.
Make peace with rotting teeth.
Make peace with damaged teeth.
I think a big part of why this has gone un-talked about for so long is just because having yellow teeth is associated with damaged teeth in some way, and thus indicative of a person’s day-to-day life. But, just like with everything else, this is NOT TRUE.
Missing teeth does not automatically mean that person gets into a lot of fights or was bullied. It could just mean that that tooth got removed.
Not everyone can afford braces, and for some people, they can be more harmful than helpful.
Some people’s teeth are hard to maintain, and they get cavities VERY easily. This doesn’t mean they don’t try their best to take care of themselves.
Everything has nuance. Let’s stop boxing everything in “good” and “bad” categories based on what beauty companies want us to be, yeah?