FashBlog.com

This week, I guess I’m in the mood to write about the accoutrements connected with fashion, such as my article about wrinkles. As I was doing so, it dawned on me that the word “fashion”, along with its image of modern styles, flattering colors, and the most creative and imaginative pairings of items, also relies a good deal upon personal care.

It may be hard to find anyone on a best dressed list with constantly dirty hair, stubble in their armpits, and chipped nail polish. This makes perfectly logistical sense, since the attention to detail that’s needed for good grooming and basic hygiene is also needed for wardrobe co-ordination. Sometimes it seems that too much attention is given to areas that the majority of folks probably will never even notice. There seems to be “specialists” and professionals for just about every aspect of the female body, from eyebrow arches to nail shape to eye colors. Let’s face it-we rarely even notice such things on our acquaintances unless they are major changes. We probably wouldn’t even notice them on media personalities. Yet, there is one new area that is noticeable, and that is tooth whitening. Think about this: when was the last time you saw any model or actress flash a dingy smile?

We now have the ability to sit and type on high speed machines that make our words instantaneously available to anyone, anywhere in the world, while whitening our teeth at the exact same time. We’ve come a long way, baby.
I’ve tried a few tooth whitening products in an attempt to get those same brilliant grins that news anchors possess, but so far, none of them have been that easy. There’s one kind that I painted on like nail polish; it tasted awful and made me conscious of every drop of spit and saliva washing it off my teeth. Then there are the strips that were supposed to stay plastered to my teeth, but didn’t, requiring me to stick my finger in my mouth every 2 minutes to push them back into place. And, those that boasted a “comfy” mouthpiece looked about as comfy as the brace retainer I used to wear. Now I see there’s a new kind of applicator that fits better on the teeth. It reminds me of those wax lips we used to buy as kids in a candy store. (You know where your teeth just sink into that gushy, soft wax and get stuck…?)

Over the counter tooth whitening systems actually seem a bit scary. Have you really read the boxes of any that give “results like professional dentist office whitening”? Regarding the methods that utilize appliance-type applicators, in addition to inside instructional packets containing a choking warning, there dire directions call for notifying the poison center immediately if the waxy gizmo is accidentally swallowed.

Let me make sure I understand this correctly-I am applying stuff to the inside of my mouth for 30 minutes a day, every day for a week, but should the gizmo that’s pushing the stuff onto my teeth becomes swallowed, I’m in immediate danger of poisoning. What’s wrong with this picture?

Years ago, people had to be satisfied with baking soda and peroxide if they wanted less whiter-looking teeth. Then, about a dozen whitening toothpastes hit the market. Now we have all of these fancy, sophisticated products available in the neighborhood grocery, but it appears they could slowly poison us. But do we care? For the most part, we don’t. We’re suckers for those commercials that make us feel guilty for having teeth that may be stained from coffee, tea, wine, tobacco, and years of using regular toothpaste. (I guess we could just stop our bad habits, but for many, that’s too much of a sacrifice.) Recently, tooth whitening systems based on light technology have now appeared in variety stores. Between what we can buy almost anywhere, and the many professional whitening procedures offered by dentists, we’re inundated with an emphasis on pearly whites.

However, if you’ve never done so before, you may want to try one of these many ways to obtain a glittering smile. Whiter smiles can make you feel like smiling more, and smiling more will definitely make anything you’re wearing look better.