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by TonyBerkman (editor), San Antonio, October 25, 2011

Credit: Creative Commons
Yaeba because beauty is in the eye of the tootholder.

Beauty is in the eye of the "tooth-holder" at least when it comes to our smiles.

When it comes to teeth alignment, Japanese women and the majority of U.S. women have very different concepts about what constitutes a pretty smile. People in the United States often spend a small fortune to have straight teeth. Parents in the U.S. almost religiously take their children to the orthodontist to ensure that their kids grow up with straight teeth. According to socio-economic studies in the United States people with crooked teeth are often seen as less attractive and not as well-educated nor as intelligent as those with picket-fence dentures.

In Japan however there is a strong trend of women purposefully having their teeth made crooked through dental cosmetic surgery. The trend trend is called "yaeba," or "double tooth and does not refer to a medical condition, but rather to getting one’s teeth to look like that of a vampire.

Japanese men apparently find the crooked tooth look extremely attractive and women must like it too. The result is that many Japanese women are paying to create "snaggleteeth" or "fangs" to showcase the popular look.

A story in the New York Times on October 21 detailed the fad in "A Little Imperfection for That Smile." "It's not like here, where perfect, straight, picket-fence teeth are considered beautiful," said Michelle Phan, a Vietnamese-American based in Los Angeles, who wrote about the phenomenon on her beauty blog," according to The New York Times. "In Japan, in fact, crooked teeth are actually endearing, and it shows that a girl is not perfect. "

Phan writes on her blog that "the crooked, fang-like yaeba teeth are said to make girls seem more approachable; the imperfection is considered desirable because it makes a girl appear more endearing and cute."

The trend is so popular that a dental salon in the Ginza district of Tokyo called "Plasir Dental Salon" practices procedures that include glueing artificial teeth to one's real teeth to create vampire fangs which give them the popular "feline" look. Once the artificial “vampire” like teeth are attached, the canines look longer, sharper and are much more prominent than before.

"The gapped tooth is sort of preorthodontic or early development, and the naturally occurring yaeba is because of delayed baby teeth, or a mouth that's too small," according to a Doctor interviewed by the Times. "It's this kind of emphasis on youth and the sexualization of young girls."

While throughout most of the world, people pay large amounts to dentists for straightening their canines, in Japan, young girls with perfect dentures visit their dentists or salons in order to have their teeth look crooked and imperfect.

Several celebrities including a TV show host and a number of news' reporters have chosen instead of fixing the crooked teeth with braces to proudly show them off in front of their audiences. Unlike in the U.S. where these teeth would be admired only on Halloween, in Japan these "fangs" are regarded in positive light and far from an imperfection.

The good news is that now when your youngest' child tells you she wants "Yaeba" you will know what exactly what she is talking about, "just saying."

Read more articles on: crooked teeth trend , japan crooked teeth , women crooked tooth , yaeba

TonyBerkman is an editor for BrooWaha. For more information, visit the writer's website.