ABSTRACT
The American Dental Dream—a cultural desire for straight, white teeth—is difficult, if not impossible, for poor and working-class people to achieve. In this autoethnography, I try to brush away the taken-for-granted assumptions about teeth, exploring the personal, relational, and structural consequences of our cultural desire and showing how social class writes itself on our bodies. This chapter includes feedback and responses to my 2015 essay, “The American Dental Dream,” adding new layers of reflection to support, complicate, and challenge my original ideas.
