It just recently dawned on me why great paintings of the past rarely, if ever show people’s dentition. They probably had horrible teeth and who wants to paint that.

Did Mona Lisa even have teeth?

Did the farmer and his wife in American Gothic have teeth that could have been misdiagnosed as meth-mouth?

Is Edward Munch’s “The Scream” really screaming because they had a raging abscess and the pain was too much to bear?

If anyone reading this can refer me to a portrait painted before 1900 where the subject is smiling and has good dentition…please let me know.