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By Dr Jeff Golub-Evans, the SmileGuru

During the campaign, President-Elect Obama had an engaging, winning smile; One reason was that his teeth were literally smiling. There are times when he may have been yawning, pausing, or thinking, but it appeared that he was smiling because his teeth are shaped in an arch form that enables him to just open his mouth to smile. It should be pointed out, however, that we have not seen much of that Obama winning smile since he got elected, since he met with George Bush and found out the true state of the nation’s economy, since he began hanging out with potty-mouthed Rahm Emanuel, started hiring those diverse cabinet members, began dealing with the Blagojevich issue, and hired Pastor Rob Warren as an Inauguration participant. It would be sad to see those big bold teeth of his get ground down from stress over the next four years, but it’s probably inevitable. It goes with the job.

Barak Obama’s smiling teeth are a design I’ve use for two decades in the modeling industry. I’ve extended many a supermodel’s working years when I crafted smiling teeth. Those women have never had to smile to look like they are smiling. They’ve just had to open their mouth and Presto.!….instant smile. The added benefit? They rarely develop any premature smile lines ( wrinkles around their lips or eyes).

A tooth whitening might have helped

Perhaps the election results would have been different if the Republican candidate and his advisers had some dental foresight. For John McCain it was particularly hard work to smile because his teeth are so short. They’ve been abraded through the years, a telltale sign of aging. He had to work harder than the other candidates to smile. Senator McCain had to physically force his mouth apart to show any upper teeth. Often that extra effort appeared as a grimace or a sarcastic look, but it may very well have been just the man trying hard to smile. Too bad; it could have been easily corrected. As we mature, the tissue of the face drops, and we show more of our bottom teeth when we talk….. and less of our top teeth. Senator McCain was still talking with his top teeth four years ago, but his political shift to the right was matched with the shift of his smile downward. McCain’s teeth were also much darker than the other three candidates’ teeth…..another sign of aging.

Senator McCain had to work harder to smile

With so much emphasis on the look of the Republican vice-presidential candidate, with her $150,000 clothing allowance, and her $22,000 per week make up artist, you would think that someone in the Republican organization might have suggested a $600 in-office dental whitening for the Republican presidential candidate. It would have cost less than a Sarah Palin eyebrow for the day. No time for a dental office visit? A $26 box of Crest Whitestrips used twice a day for a week probably would have taken 10 years of pigment off McCain’s teeth. If the Senator’s campaign advisers had been thinking ahead, long before the first primary election, they might have even arranged for ten upper porcelain veneers for the Republican presidential candidate, at a cost of $15,000-$22,000. That would have been less than the $22,000 for one week of the high-priced Palin makeup artist, and would have lasted a lot longer than one campaign stop, more like 15-18 years.

Barak Obama's winning smile

Governor Sarah Palin has TV Beauty Pageant teeth. Through the years we have provided that cookie-cutter smile style hundreds of times for beauty contestants, models and aspiring actresses, Hers are a perfect match for her, delivering the message “ I’m a beautiful All-American woman . The shape of her teeth and her glasses match and echo the square shape of her face, a good design choice. The age-appropriate color is one we have chosen often for news anchors and working actresses and radiate confidence and attractiveness. The Governor’s makeup artist must have enjoyed applying color to those lips with such an engaging grid of smile architecture behind. Time will tell whether the words spewing out of her attractive smile four years from now will sound any wiser than they did in this last campaign.

Governor Palin's pageant teeth

Senator Joe Biden has an exaggerated Bill Clintonesque presidential look, and has been well made: gray hair transplants, well-fitted suits, and cosmetic dentistry. He looks the part, though some patients of mine have said that he is a living caricature of a presidential look combined with that of a used car salesman. His smile may too perfect, a bit too white, and a bit too wide. On the other hand, tkhe Dean of New York University College of Dentistry mentioned at a graduation ceremony several years ago, that an over 70-something morning talk show host, (Regis), had “successfully raised the bar on white,” Perhaps it gave permission for almost-70-something, like Senator Biden, to do the same.

Senator Biden's too white smile?

We live in a wonderful age. Everyone can have white teeth, and the process can be safe, effective and affordable. Three of our four candidates ( or their advisers) have discovered this fact. Americans know it too. They know that a white smile has become a standard fashion accessory, not only for supermodels, pageant queens, news anchors and actresses , but also for regular folks and surely for their candidates. What about the past smiling history of our presidents? George W. Bush has his father’s old man smile, Clinton has a full-face expressive smile, Kennedy had a celebrity smile, , Nixon’s smile? Did we ever see Nixon smile?, Eisenhower’s was grandfatherly and Reagan’s smile was folksy and off-centered. It is well known that George Washington sported a set of wooden teeth, and less known that an extra special set was made for him on a silver base by none other than Paul Revere ( yes, that Paul Revere). Could it have possibly been made with lighter teeth for special public occasions? I’m Dr. Jeff Golub-Evans, the SmileGuru, and I approve this message.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 1:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.