Brits actually have better teeth than Americans

Brits have bad teeth. Everyone knows this.

The stereotype dates back a century to when toothpaste advertisements in the early to mid-1900s praised how superior American smiles were.

But a scientific study has finally set the record straight: We've had it all backwards.

The research was published in the December 16 issue of BMJ - the medical journal's lighthearted "Christmas issue," which uses science to tackle whimsical questions like: "Why are the magazines in doctors' offices always old?" and, "Are men really idiots?"

It turns out Americans have significantly more missing teeth than the Brits do, the study found, with the mean number missing 7.31 for Americans vs. 6.97 for Brits. And more people in the US were completely toothless than in the UK.

One reason for more missing teeth in the US could be because more Americans get their wisdom teeth removed, the authors noted. But since this was just a straight comparison, they couldn't tease out the reasons for these differences.

The numbers come from nationally representative surveys from the UK and US governments, each sampling several thousand people over the age of 25, that asked people to report different aspects of their dental health.

The British were slightly more likely to say they had lifestyle problems because of their teeth - like pain, trouble eating, and avoiding smiling - but the difference wasn't statistically significant.

These data convinced the authors that the British truly have better teeth than Americans.

"Indeed, our study showed a mixed picture, with Americans having significantly more missing teeth, the English reporting more oral impacts, and no differences in self rated oral health between the two countries," the authors wrote. "Contrary to popular belief, our study showed that the oral health of US citizens is not better than the English."

Previous reports have noted that dental care is freely available in the UK, and more British people make regular dental visits than Americans, factors that might be an important part of the equation.

The lead author of the BMJ study was from University College London, though. And the agenda for this admittedly humorous study was transparent: The title he chose, after all, was "Austin Powers bites back."

Perhaps it would have come to a different conclusion if American researchers had led it, since they might have considered different datapoints - like how straight or white the teeth were. Fair or not, that's what the stereotype is really all about.