Throughout most of the developed world, straight teeth and a perfect smile are the ultimate standard in dental beauty. As a result, people will spend a fortune having expensive orthodontic work carried out to achieve it. However, young women in Japan have, in recent years, been engaging in an unusual practice known locally as “yaeba”. Yaeba translates literally as “double tooth,” and involves these women having the same expensive orthodontic work, only in this case, the braces are designed to make their teeth look a little more crooked than nature intended.

This procedure is normally done to one or two teeth, and is supposed to make the woman in question seem a little less perfect, and therefore less intimidating. This is one beauty trend which is already starting to spread around the world, with a similar procedure known as “tooth crowding” becoming increasingly popular even in the US.

Well, it seems I didn’t have to suffer straightening my teeth as a teenager!

And what do you think about this procedure?