[credit: NBC. these are screencaps from a scene from Seinfeld where kramer looks terrible and his teeth are all brown, cuz he turned his house into a smoking lounge for a few days. lol. u can watch the video clip of the scene and also the blooper clip where jerry keeps cracking up when looking at kramer at the links below!! ^_^http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofsljUAUdlc
[seinfeld scene kramer smoke]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFvZLjRPNg
[Seinfeld Blooper]
sorry, this post is only toma-related, but i felt it needed to be posted cuz it's the answer to a question that's been on my mind for a long time.
when i watched hana kimi in 2007, one of the first things i noticed that shocked me was how yellow some of the actors' teeth are!! don't get me wrong, my teeth are not perfectly white, but still...i think celebrities should always have white teeth or at least not so noticeably yellow teeth. i mean, nakatsu's, mizuki's, oscar's, and some other ppl.... EH??? nande?? @__@
i don't mind crooked teeth (toma's is kinda crooked, of course), BUT yellow teeth!! it just looks so....i dunno....dirty/unclean. BUT REALLY~ HANDS DOWN, THE PERSON WITH THE MOST YELLOW TEETH I'VE EVER SEEN IN A DORAMA MUST BE EITA IN VOICE!!! it was just so distracting...and i'd cringe when he smiled sometimes. lol. actually, toma's teeth is not always so bad, sometimes it gets better, like right now, i think it's not bad. i dunno, maybe he did something to it after VOICE finished up, cuz his teeth was still not looking so great in VOICE.
i've heard from other fans that toma smokes, so i guess that's partly why his teeth are like that. but then, i've noticed, lots of other japanese stars have yellow teeth. they can't ALL be smokers. so i did some research. yappari~ there are many different reasons that cause a lot of japanese ppl to have yellow/crooked teeth. seems like the main reasons must be cuz so much ppl smoke and drink tea a lot there, and not enough flouride in their water and toothpaste.
AH HA! now i understand!!
but that explains the why so many ppl have yellow teeth, but it doesn't explain WHY THEY DON'T TRY TO WHITEN/BLEACH IT?? i guess it's a cultural thing, again, that i wouldn't understand?? they don't care? (they should!!) or it's too expensive?? guess they can't easily buy Crest whitestrips there, since they don't even have toothpaste w/flouride f/the usa except in specialty shops.
they smoke like crazy in japan!! 0__o (no wonder toma also smokes!) in fact, check out jamie's post about how annoying/unhealthy it is that ppl smoke everywhere in tokyo: http://blog.jamieism.com/archives/46
i found a lot of ppl talking about the reasons 4 their bad teeth here:
-http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39459
-http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?t=1440
-http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060816035727AAhhtRf
[the comments below come from these 2 links:
http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39459
http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?t=1440]
"I always filter my tap water before drinking it...tastes and smells much better.
As for the teeth problem, I think it probally due to the diet of soft foods such a rice and fish.
Africans have great teeth due to their diet of meat and hard vegetables."
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I reckon the following are the cause of bad teeth in Japan:
Heavy tea and coffee drinking stains teeth, mine included.
A higher proportion of heavy smokers likewise, but you don't see many yellow stained fingers unlike heavy smokers in the UK.
Poor childhood dental care, and for adults- the infrequency of visits to the dentist. I go every six months for cleaning/polishing, but no Japanese i know well (wife included) have been in years.
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- DENTAL CARE
I am surprised as most people here seeing so many dental practices around but people have "crappy teeth". The fact of the matter is, its not that Japanese people like crappy looking teeth, its that its VERY EXPENSIVE (ESPECIALLY
for corrective surgery).
If you look at the dental care products, especially
Toothpaste, there are quite a number of products available
that "don't" have FLUORIDE. As most people know, Fluoride is very useful for protecting teeth not just cleaning it.
- WATER QUALITY
I agree with some of the posters who mention that Japan's water quality standard is one of the highest. Now this doesn't mean that it is same all over Japan since I know from experience that some parts of Japan have better water quality. As a general rule, more rural parts of Japan seem to have less "chemical" taste in their waters. I think there are pro and cons in all situations.
The important issue however, is that Japan don't have same level of FLUORIDE in the water. (maybe they don't actually "add" it at all). Fluoride strengthen teeth.
With all this, you have to add:
- Everyone are big Tea/Coffee drinkers
- Japanese people like junk food
- Japanese people like to drink (alcohol)
- Many popular foods are FERMENTED = acidic
When you consider all these factors, its no surprise
that people get crappy teeth.
The best way to protect yourself in Japan:
- Try to use filters (ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH FLUORIDE supplements)
- Chewing gum (not the candy types)
- Buy toothpaste with FLUORIDE
- Try to not eat fermented products too often.
(pickled stuff, concentrates, miso etc)
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Yellow teeth are caused by smoking, tea and coffee drinking and to a certain extent genetics.
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I think Japanese people drink more tea than people do in most English-speaking countries. Also about 50% of men smoke here- again a higher rate than in the main English-speaking countries. All this contributes to the state of people's teeth.
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