History Main / EternallyPearlyWhiteTeeth

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Chip Skylark is such a straight example of this trope that he has a ''song'' about it!
-->"My shiny teeth and me!"

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mixels}}'', all the Mixels have perfect white sharp teeth... except for Chomly, who has a GoldTooth from breaking one of his buck teeth, and by the Waka half of Vaka-Waka, who, due to being the stomach half of the duo, has horribly yellowed teeth.

* ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]'': The makeup artists went a little nuts on Taylor Lautner's teeth, enough for a hilarious reaction from the Podcast/RiffTrax boys:

* ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} New Moon]]'': The makeup artists for went a little nuts on Taylor Lautner's teeth, enough for a hilarious reaction from the Podcast/RiffTrax boys:

* Averted in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', where Marty's unusually clean teeth are one of the first things that people notice about him. Doc's teeth, however, are not commented on (Well, they've had more time to get used to him. Also, he grew up in an earlier generation of dentistry than Marty).

* Averted with the Joker in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' who has pretty gross looking yellow teeth. In fact, most versions of the Joker have fairly yellowish (if uncommonly straight) teeth, to contrast with his white clown makeup.
* The Penguin in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' has narrow, sharpened teeth that are more like fangs, and they are a dingy dark yellow in color. In other media, the Penguin usually has white teeth - but they tend to be vaguely crooked or misaligned, in order to make him look sinister.

* Averted in ''Film/LesMiserables2012''. Aaron Tveit, who played Enjolras, mentions getting makeup on his pearly whites so that they won't end up with an early 19th-century revolutionary leader with jarringly perfect teeth (though Victor Hugo specifically noted that Enjolras has 'exquisite teeth', so perhaps it wouldn't have been so out of place).
* Averted in the 90's French comedy ''Film/LesVisiteurs''. Played glaringly straight in the American CulturalAdaptation / SpinOff ''Film/JustVisiting'' (''Les Visiteurs en Amérique''), which eventually flopped both in France and the US.
* Both played straight ''and'' averted in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' -- the Orcs get absolutely ''horrendous'' gnashers, as the makeup people point out that good teeth are a sign of 21st century living -- but, as noted above in the picture of Boromir, all the good characters have perfect whites.
* Averted in ''Film/ManOfSteel''. Kal-El's teeth are noticeably ''not'' perfectly straight, since how would any orthdontist straighten Teeth of Steel?
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': Averted, if not outright inverted. The Pythons noted on the DVD audio commentary that real medieval English peasants probably had ''nicer'' teeth than those in the movie, due to the lack of refined sugar and other tooth-rotting foods in TheMiddleAges.

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' averts this not just with the regular background pirates (who are the sort of people you'd expect to have bad teeth), but also with Jack Sparrow. From the main characters, Barbossa is the most noticeable aversion, with his [[https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/d52b519013902794f9bb7919fbf11d71.jpg teeth]] looking absolutely hideous throughout all five movies he's in.
** Played straight with Will Turner, though. (Really, all the British characters should have lousy teeth: not because they're {{British|Teeth}}, but because they're living in Jamaica -- the sugar and citrus fruit capitol of the colonial world -- and all tooth-cleaning methods will still be woefully inadequate.)
** Differently played with Jack, in fact -- his dental work probably counts as RuleOfCool, as gold and silver false teeth are probably NewerThanTheyThink. False teeth were only just being created at the end of the century (initially out of human teeth or some kind of animal horn or tusk); and it would be generations before you could eat an apple with any of them!

* Tooth decay was associated with high status in England at least dating back to the days of Elizabeth I. This was due to the wealthy eating more sugar. People who wanted to appear higher status than they actually were would sometimes dye their teeth to make them appear worse than they were.

Characters in nearly all media are portrayed as having pretty, white teeth, with nary a hint of any kind of tooth decay whatsoever. Even characters without any access to modern orthodontics and oral hygiene supplies will still have teeth that are just as straight and white as a modern person's. Just for the information, until the XX century, doctors were only providing three dental services: removal of sick teeth, replacing them with prosthetics (gold for those who could afford it), and splinting with metal wire (dating as old as ancient Egypt).

* ''Series/{{Frontier}}'': Averted. Primarily for the European characters, it's clear that their teeth haven't profited from diets with added sugar at a time when dental hygiene wasn't really a thing of concern.

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boromir_shows_us_good_teeth3_9345.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The Men of Gondor were known for their stout hearts and excellent dental hygiene.]]

* As WebVideo/HonestTrailers pointed out, the characters of ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' all look [[NubileSavage impressively well-groomed]] for the FuturePrimitive setting they inhabit. While the narrator is more fixated on their perfectly sculpted eyebrows, their teeth are just as noticeably improbably pearly white and straight.

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' averts this not just with the regular background pirates (who are the sort of people you'd expect to have bad teeth), but also with Jack Sparrow.

Characters in nearly all media are portrayed as having pretty, white teeth, with nary a hint of any kind of tooth decay whatsoever. Even characters without any access to modern orthodontics and oral hygiene supplies will still have teeth that are just as straight and white as a modern person's.

Interestingly, blindingly white teeth aren't considered ideal in all cultures around the world. In some Asian countries, teeth dyed in ''black'' was considered a beauty ideal [[note]]Because pale skin is also idealized in these countries, and was often archived with white foundation on the face, teeth would look yellow in comparison; blackening them gave the illusion of an open mouth when the person smiled. Inversely, this is the same reason dark-skinned people are often praised for having "white" teeth even if the person in question doesn't do anything special with them[[/note]]. Natural, healthy teeth are more of an off-white, light beige color. Artificial whitening procedures also tend to weaken the tooth enamel, making them ''less'' healthy.

The other side of this trope, however, is to commonly present [[TheDungAges people in the past as all having rotten, disgusting teeth due to their primitive oral hygiene]]. This is very much TruthInTelevision -- for ''some'' time periods and regions, but not for always and everywhere. [[RealityIsUnrealistic In reality]], the rate of dental decay was rather low in the oldest time periods; even though the people may have spent much less time cleaning their teeth, they suffered less from tooth decay than we would expect today because their diets didn't have nearly as much tooth-rotting sugar. The big turn for the worse, at least when talking about European cultures, happened during TheHighMiddleAges. See the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_caries#History Other Wiki]] for more details.

* In the ''Literature/SongOfSongs'' from Literature/TheBible, the Beloved praises the Shulamite for her teeth, saying that they are like freshly-washed ewes, each having a twin, and none being barren among them -- a compliment in an age before modern dentistry.

* Though we never get a good enough look at his face in-game to confirm it, an [[ApocolypticRecord audio log]] in ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' mentions that [[SouthernGentleman Augustus Sinclaire]], the man who assists Subject Delta in navigating Rapture, sports a pair of "[[https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/Working_for_Sinclair thousand dollar Steinman teeth]]."

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} III'': Inverted in the leader pics. Genghis Khan has ''hideously'' bad teeth -- even in the modern era, when logically even the Mongols ought to have reasonable dental hygeine.

Interestingly, blindingly white teeth aren't considered ideal in all cultures around the world. In some Asian countries, teeth dyed in ''black'' was considered a beauty ideal [[note]]Because pale skin is also idealized in these countries, teeth would look yellow in comparison; blackening them gave the illusion of an open mouth when the person smiled. Inversely, this is the same reason dark-skinned people are often praised for having "white" teeth even if the person in question doesn't do anything special with them[[/note]]. Natural, healthy teeth are more of an off-white, light beige color. Artificial whitening procedures also tend to weaken the tooth enamel, making them ''less'' healthy.

* It's pretty distracting in ''Film/HouseOf1000Corpses'' and it's sequel ''Film/TheDevilsRejects'' with the Firefly family who are a bunch of psychotic cannibal rednecks despite this they have shiny white teeth.

* Both played straight ''and'' averted in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' -- the Orcs get absolutely ''horrendous'' gnashers, as the makeup people point out that good teeth are a sign of 20'21st century living -- but, as noted above in the picture of Boromir, all the good characters have perfect whites.

* Parodied in ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when Ross's teeth whitening treatment (which he said he left in way longer than he was supposed to, creating absurdly bright teeth, Phoebe saw them and screamed "Demon!!!") reacts to a [[http://glasstire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/the+one+with+ross+teeth.jpg blacklight.]]

--> '''Tooth''': "Oh, they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow!"

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boromir_shows_us_good_teeth3_9345.jpg]]]]

-->[[EarWorm "My shiny teeth and me!"]]

Interestingly, blindingly white teeth aren't considered ideal in all cultures around the world. In some Asian countries, teeth dyed in ''black'' was considered a beauty ideal [[note]]Because pale skin is also idealized in these countries, teeth would look yellow in comparison, thus blackening them would create an acceptable contrast. Inversely, this is the same reason dark-skinned people are often praised for having "white" teeth even if the person in question doesn't do anything special with them[[/note]]. Natural, healthy teeth are more of an off-white, light beige color. Artificial whitening procedures also tend to weaken the tooth enamel, making them ''less'' healthy.

Interestingly, blindingly white teeth aren't considered ideal in all cultures around the world. In some Asian countries, teeth dyed in ''black'' was considered a beauty ideal. Natural, healthy teeth are more of a pearly off-white. Artificial whitening procedures also tend to weaken the tooth enamel, making them ''less'' healthy.

This trope is so common that it's simply easier to list aversions, subversions and {{egregious}} examples.

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': An {{egregious}} example is in an early episode, when the kids are showing Numbuh Three what kind of teeth she should have and they are revealed to have hideous teeth due to poor dental care. And yet, in every other shot, they have perfect teeth. Recurring villain Stickybeard averts this trope with hideous teeth due to all the candy he eats.