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From a veteran Washington Post journalist, the view from inside America�s mouth--and what our teeth reveal about inequality today "Show me your teeth," the great naturalist George Cuvier is credited with saying, "and I will tell you who you are." In this shattering new work, veteran health journalist Mary Otto looks inside America�s mouth, revealing unsettling truths about our unequal society. Teeth takes readers on a disturbing journey into America�s silent epidemic of oral disease, exposing the hidden connections between tooth decay and stunted job prospects, low educational achievement, social mobility, and the troubling state of our public health. Otto�s subjects include the pioneering dentist who made Shirley Temple and Judy Garland�s teeth sparkle on the silver screen; an up-and-coming beauty queen awarded thousands of dollars of free cosmetic dental care; Deamonte Driver, the young Baltimore boy whose tragic death from an abscessed tooth sparked Congressional hearings; a marketing guru who offers advice to dentists on how to push new and expensive treatments and how to keep Medicaid patients at bay; and a huge range of experts, from paleoanthropologists to public health specialists, who untangle the complex history of oral health and dental care. Muckraking and paradigm-shifting, Teeth exposes for the first time the extent and meaning of our oral health crisis. In the tradition of Jessica Mitford, Mary Roach, and Mark Kurlansky, it joins the small shelf of books that change the way we view society and ourselves--and will spark an urgent conversation about why our teeth matter.