Overheard at the airport this morning, part of a conversation between two older ladies:
“She’s really pretty. She has beautiful teeth.”
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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Skulls in the Stars 
Maybe when you don’t have your own you admire other people’s?
The Wife: Perhaps! 🙂
I actually think that associating teeth strongly with beauty is kinda common with folks in the “greatest generation”. My grandmother, when praising the physical good looks of her grandkids, as grandmothers are wont to do, occasionally mentions our teeth.
I suspect in the generation before widespread use of braces and fluorinated water, having straight white teeth was something of a lucky genetic break, much as other things we usually associate with beauty today are.
simplicio: You’re almost certainly right that perfect teeth associates strongly with beauty in an earlier generation; it was just one of those statements that really struck me funny!