Turned off by bad teeth

[LetsParty]

Hi guys!

I don't know how important teeth are to you when it comes to playing with someone, but I know for us (or for my wife, anyhow), a good set of teeth is quite important.

As a matter of fact, gross teeth are pretty much a deal-breaker when it comes to play.

On two occasions, we met two couples, where the guy just had terrible teeth. Since I am the profile screener, I got my butt kicked because we wasted a darn good weekend night with those people.

When I went back and looked at their profile (on A.F.F.), sure enough, I noticed that both men had pictures of themselves with smiles, with their mouths closed.

Aha!

I have now come to the realization that when people send or post pictures with closed mouths, I think it USUALLY means that they have ugly teeth!

It only seems logical to me that if someone had a nice, white, straight set of teeth, there is no way on earth they would smile for a picture with their mouth closed.

I dunno, just a theory!

Are teeth important to anyone else here?
Does anyone else get suspicious when no pictures show teeth?

...just a thought for today!...

[ShellyM]

I dunno about your theory lol. I just attached my pic, and my mouth happens to be closed in it lol! So I laughed. I admittedly don't have the best teeth. What can I say, my parents are children of the 60s....we barely went to the medical doctor lol, much less the dentist. But, I work with what I have. You know though, meeting someone you can't have sex with doesnt necessarily waste your night, either. We are good friends with swingers we met, but were not sexually attracted to. Even with bad teeth, they may be good people lol. Seriously though, you have a right to your preference, especially if its that big of an issue to you.

[LetsParty]

Hey Shelly!!

Funny post!

Interesting comment regarding your whole "wasting your night" theory!

I tend to share your point of view, but not my wife. She has the same line all the time when it comes to meeting people who end up being platonic friends:

"I'm not interested, because I have enough ho's and bitches in my life already!"

I do see her point. We are both professionals, plus I play hockey three nights a week. She is quite busy herself. Furthermore, we spend a lot of free time on the phone with several of our friends, talking for hours, typically helping them with their romantic/love/limerent issues of the day. (Boy, it's tough being a single person or a vanilla person!)

...so, when we do have some nights that aren't taken up by work, alone time, or playing psychologist (ie. Friday/Saturday), the LAST thing that we like to do is talk to strangers about marriage/politics/work/swinging.

We wanna meet, feel some passion/excitement/adventure, and PLAY!

If it's gonna be an evening of no-attraction and sharing stories, heck, might as well do this with a current/good friend, or alone the two of us.

Hey, did I just totally hog my own thread into a different direction!

(Seems like Shelly brought up a more interesting discussion (ie. Wasting a night..) than talking about our pearly whites!!! )

[ShellyM]

Originally Posted by LetsParty

I tend to share your point of view, but not my wife. She has the same line all the time when it comes to meeting people who end up being platonic friends:
"I'm not interested, because I have enough ho's and bitches in my life already!"

Hey, and thats cool lol. I can't judge anyone, cause I swear I'm the pickiest somebody on the planet! I had to actually learn better, because at first I was honestly only looking at men with dark hair and dark eyes....and Jay was like HELLO! Men do have other traits, you know...........
I didn't know that...

[Amanda69]

I have nice teeth but am very self concious smiling for pics so tend to have a closed mouth...

[ohash01]

I am less concerned with straightness and more concerened with cleanliness. If it is obvious that you don't brush your teeth and you have last week's spinach stuck in them, I will be completely grossed out.

I have great teeth, but my parents had to spend a lot of money to get them this way. I had braces and retainers and spacers and I also have an experimental polymer coating on my teeth. I was part of a test group to see how it worked on children. We had that done when I was 10 or 11 and it's GREAT!! No cavities, no chipping, no staining. Fabulous!!

J.'s teeth aren't as great, but that's because he was just far "too cool" to get braces. Haha. He brushes his teeth twice a day and keeps his mouth clean, so like I said, the crooked doesn't bother me at all!

[LetsParty]

Ah yes, we CAN deal with some crooked teeth, but hey... I get my whitening gel on ebay... $9.99 for like three tubes! Floss is $2.99 at Wal-Mart.

Not everyone can afford braces, head-gears, retainers... I agree...

But at least floss, brush, and bleach 'em, too!

[Thrax]

Okay, a couple things come to mind.

First, there are people who can smile naturally with their mouths open, showing teeth. And then there are those of us who feel we look unnatural, if not downright scary and/or bizarre, with a toothy smile, regardless of our dental condition. I think my close-mouthed smile looks natural and is quite charming paired with my sparkling hazel eyes. If you ask me to show teeth for a photo, the result, to me, is getting a little too close to Jack Nicholson's "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!" scene in The Shining (although I think I have better hair). Others may not think I look scary with a toothy smile, but that's how I see myself in toothy pics.

Second, my parents started out as working class and built our family up to a solid middle class level, and we ALL went to the dentist at LEAST once a year...usually every six months. My teeth are pretty straight considering I never had braces, so except for a hereditary lower incisor thingy (No. 24 or so folds in) I've only had to put up with a LOT of fillings. The fillings were my fault, I ate a LOT of candy when I was younger, and I wasn't fanatical about brushing then.

Finally, at this point in my life, I brush my teeth three and sometimes four times a day. My teeth have always been a gleaming off-white. My dentist tells me I have "soft" teeth. They're prone to cracking and decay, take on the colors of caffienated drinks that encounter them, and would be abysmal if I didn't take care of them. She said that even with whiteners, my teeth will never be the glowing Hollywood kind unless I got caps, crowns or something. So, even though my teeth ARE in pretty good condition, I'm still a tad self-conscious about them because they'll never be pearly-white.

I've never been waved off because of my teeth, as far as I know, but just to let you other folks know that there are some of us who are not extravagant with toothy smiles for a reason!

Thrax

[2jersey]

Originally Posted by Thrax

Okay, a couple things come to mind.

First, there are people who can smile naturally with their mouths open, showing teeth. And then there are those of us who feel we look unnatural, if not downright scary and/or bizarre, with a toothy smile, regardless of our dental condition. I think my close-mouthed smile looks natural and is quite charming paired with my sparkling hazel eyes. If you ask me to show teeth for a photo, the result, to me, is getting a little too close to Jack Nicholson's "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!" scene in The Shining (although I think I have better hair). Others may not think I look scary with a toothy smile, but that's how I see myself in toothy pics.

Thrax

Thrax, you seem to have an insightful angle on most every subject. You are absolutely correct about smiles. People say I am smiling all of the time, but the truth is that the relaxed position of my mouth reveals my teeth (which are white and straight, fortunately). Some people, even people with perfect teeth, look (and probably "feel") awkward when they reveal teeth.

[intensity_too]

I look at teeth too though not so much for straightness but cleanliness and color . . . if your teeth are really yellow, your out.

I get judged on my smile often. I have a large Venus gap between my two front teeth. I personally love it but it turns a lot of people off. Oh well, to each his own.

[cpl2doitwithu]

Well, my wife says i have a nice smile and I do take good care of my teeth, but I just don't feel comfortable with a big toothy smile. It's just not me. My teeth are fine and I show them when I laugh, but my mouth is just not shaped for a big smile for no reason. Not sure your theory holds up that if someone doesn't show their teeth in a profile that they must have ugly teeth.

[Mr. Truelove]

What about those rappers with the "grills"?

[intuition897]

Originally Posted by Mr. Truelove

What about those rappers with the "grills"?

Yeah, I had a good laugh when I heard that song. I mean, they must be really hard up for song material when they start singing entire songs about their shoes (I've heard, like, TWO songs about just shoes so far) and about interchangeable gemstone-studded dentures. :rollseyes:

Alas, I was not blessed with the world's straightest teeth (shoulda had ortho, but didn't have the cash or a dental plan as a kid). Hence the mouth-shut picture. But I have a thing for clean mouths. I enjoy kissing, and I just can't enjoy it if, with every breath, I have to think about how bad their breath smells. Like Amanda said, floss, brush and rinse. It's a friggin' 5 minute routine! You only actually NEED to brush once a day, and you can usually get away with flossing every other day if you really need to. But if you don't floss, you end up with chunks of food putrefying between your teeth and below the gumline. And you get bacteria (which the human mouth is ripe with anyway) which produce acid when they feed off this rotting material. This acid eats away at the enamel of your teeth causing cavities, AND attacking the gingival tissue (your gums). If left unchecked, the acid breaks down the tiny ligaments that attach your teeth to the tissue below the gumline, causing deeper and deeper pockets (which become food traps which expound the problem), gum recession and eventually bone loss. This is irreversible once you get to this stage (called periodontitis), and you eventually lose teeth. But long before the teeth start falling out, you'll know someone with this problem because you can smell it. The smell is rotting blood, rotting food matter, and pus. Sweet, eh? All this loveliness can be avoided by developing a simple, quick routine to clean your teeth and mouth, avoiding high-sugar foods, and investing once a year in a professional dental cleaning and check-up. Seriously, it IS an investment.

I also heard somewhere (and I can't remember the source!) about there being a connection between your health (especially heart health) and dental health. I just can't remember if gingivitis is actually a risk factor, an aggravator, or an indicator of heart disease. I'll have to go google it now...

[LFM2]

I have nice straight white teeth, thanks to good genes. I brush twice a day and floss just as often. My husband was not blessed with good teeth. He's still got one baby tooth that's never come out. They aren't crooked, but they don't look bad. He could probably have it pulled and his adult tooth would come down, I've seen the x-rays, but he hates dentists, so therefore, he won't go. It doesn't bother me in the least.

What I do have a problem with is someone who is hygienically deficient when it comes to their teeth. No brushing, no flossing and some serious yellow stains are a no-go for us. Especially for me. It just creeps me out too much!

[Mr. Truelove]

Originally Posted by intuition897

Hence the mouth-shut picture.

And here I thought it was so you could simply show off your devishly sexy smirk...