Kendall Jenner Is Making the Oral Beauty Trend Happen

As far as white spaces go in beauty, come 2024, the pickings are slim. So when dental clinicians and entrepreneurs alike began to set their sights on literal white (or more often than not, yellow-ish) spaces – our teeth – it made us question why we hadn’t been considering oral care as part of our beauty regimen all along.

The beautification of oral care seems to have started when celebrities began facing ‘invisible’ orthodontic brands in the 2010s. And though it’s taken a decade or so, a broader, highly Instagrammable ‘oral beauty’ trend has emerged, through aesthetically motivated dental brands that consider both your selfie and your ‘shelfie’, reframing the twice-daily ritual to be as enticing as your favourite glow drops.

It makes sense; they say your hair is 60% of your selfie, a category which fast became ‘skinified’ and soon after, hyper stylised, thanks to at-home devices like the Dyson Airwrap. Tinder data has revealed that individuals that present smiles with bright, aligned teeth are rated higher in relation to attractiveness and likelihood of receiving a swipe – providing a platform for oral beauty to sparkle. After all, it would be wrong to ignore the fact that many of our foundational beauty rituals originated in cave-people times to attract a mate.

When you really think about it, failing to adopt the trend would be a disservice to oneself – and all it takes is slight finessing of existing habits. For one, swapping to an electric toothbrush ensures a more thorough clean, with less wrist work involved. (Editor’s note: I didn’t understand the Moon Oral Beauty Electric Toothbrush hype taking over the MECCA office – how could a toothbrush be that good? – until I tried it myself!)