Common American misconception. NHS dental care is excellent and affordable. Most people in the UK have strong, healthy, well-cared-for teeth, with regular check-ups etc. Also, we eat a lot less sugar then the average Colonial (dammit, even your bread is sweet!).

What the NHS does NOT do is waste money on expensive cosmetic orthodontics and whitening. Basically, if your teeth are naturally a little on the cream-yellow side, and/or a touch crooked, or you have a slight over- or underbite, but none of this affects your overall oral health, then the NHS will not fund any purely cosmetic work. That's not what the NHS is for. My daughter, whose teeth were causing mouth ulcers (injuring the inside of her cheek) because of overcrowding, had a year of intensive orthodontics, braces and everything, at no cost whatever. This was therapeutic orthodontics.

But if your teeth and mouth are healthy, but you want a perfectly straight, white smile, then you pay for it out of your own pocket. It ain't cheap, and most folk have better things to spend their money on. If it comes down to either artificially whitening a vain teenagers' perfectly healthy teeth, or having a family holiday in Spain or Tuscany, guess which will win every time!

We know you can't spell, by the way! Not your fault, it's that semi-literate clown Webster. Why a guy descended from weavers thought he could write a dictionary is anyones' guess!