Here for the History
Do Brits have bad teeth?
22 October 2026
Available for over a year
British people have terrible teeth. That’s the stereotype - but is it true? And what’s the story behind it?
Ben Henderson and Alice Loxton explore how Brits got a reputation for bad teeth thanks to our love of sugar, and we see how British and American teeth took wildly different paths after the Second World War.
Key Sources:
June Thomas - Journalist.
The Bad-Mouthing of British Teeth - Decoder Ring podcast.
Drills, Dentures and Dentistry: An Oral History - BBC Four.
Dr Irwin Smigel - The Times.
Austin Powers bites back: a cross sectional comparison of US and English national oral health surveys - British Medical Journal.
