“If you look at the statistics, they show British teeth are healthier than American [teeth],” says Ben Atkins, a trustee of the
Oral Health Foundation. “A recent joint study [between University of London and Harvard] showed the average American person was missing 7.31 teeth compared to 6.97 in Britain, which is significantly higher.” Further studies also showed that Britain topped
OECD countries for good teeth, with only 0.7 missing or filled teeth in its 12-year-olds (the testing age generally used by the industry) compared to 1.3 in the U.S.