Smile Like You Mean It

Charley Williams-Howitt discovers the teeth tweaks worth smiling about.

- Charley Williams-Howitt

Remember the TV show, 10 Years Younger? It wasn’t the new wardrobe and trendy haircut that got us excited, or even all that surgery, it was the teeth transformations that made us sit up and go “Oooh”. Psychotherapist Lucy Beresford explains: “In our psyche, good teeth equal fitness, vitality and above all, youth.” I’m currently having my own mid-life smile dilemma. OK, so my teeth aren’t as bad as the 10 Years lot, but decades of teeth grinding, too much red wine, wisdom-teeth problems, yada yada… means I’m now not smiling as widely as I should. And I’m not alone. A staggering 70%* of us are unhappy with our teeth. So what to do? “Today it’s less about invasive procedures and more about enhancing what we have with a little ‘smile tweaking’,” says London Smiling’s Dr Uchenna Okoye. “Just as you may have a peel or Botox, fine-tuning teeth is becoming a part of beauty routines, as clients realise the anti-ageing benefits of improving a little bit here and there.”

First things first…