Hmm...

[ksmith]

So yesterday, justinelavaworm discussed a panel she and matociquala, among others, participated in during which discussions of class were attempted/danced around/not quite followed through on. Then I saw this line in today's entry in Jane Espenson's blog:

You know how, in this country, the most visible, and most reliable, indicator of a person's social class is the condition of their teeth?

and I started thinking about outward indications of social class.

Not sure about teeth. A former manager, who came from upper-middle PacNorWet money, had one of the worst sets of choppers I had ever seen. But then, he had a casual attitude about a lot of things, including money. In a way, this casualness typed him as surely as Jane's perfect teeth.

Hands are supposed to be another indicator--their condition and the style of manicure. Shoes. Hair style. Weight.

I don't have time to go into this now, and I'm not sure what I'd say if I did except that I find it all pretty interesting.

Comments

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Teeth are an indicator, but they're not exact. My BF eventually scared up the guts to ask me if I'd ever had braces, because my teeth are a bit uneven. And well, no, I haven't had braces. I have a tiny overbite, and three gappy spots on my upper jaw, because I only have 2 adult incisors. The level of natural fix my body did is good enough, so even my dentist was not particularly keen on trying to fix further.

On the other hand, I had a dentist who was good enough to ID the problem, and watched it closely.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

My two lower incisors grew in crooked, and crossed over slightly. My mom had asked whether I needed braces, and dentists told her no. I was in my 30s when I got them fixed--wore a retainer for a couple of months--oh, the pain of the few few weeks-- then had a permanent retainer installed.

It never bothered me growing up. It did as I got older. Even if it had been a strictly cosmetic fix, I'd have had it done.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

It bothers him more than it does me I think. The teeth work, and because of the missing teeth, the overbite can't be fixed any more than it already is. The rest just makes it easier to floss *g*. I'm just glad that I ended up being the only one of my siblings who didn't *need* braces, instead of having to have them because they did have serious structural problems (and they had all their teeth!).

If the gaps start to bother me, I'll get it fixed.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

More important than the appearance aspect is how the overall bite is affected, and how that can affect the alignment of the jaw. TMJ and all that. My mom has that, and it can be painful.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the problem in my case is they really can't do anything to functionally correct the overbite. They can make my teeth look more even, but the overbite is a deeper structural issue, since I just don't have the teeth I'd need to make things even. Like a lot of things with my skeleton, it's badly designed *just* enough to drive doctors nuts, and not badly enough that any repair attempts will do much besides hurt a lot without actually making things better for me.