hi hi
according to the MA's portrait, she always wears perfect smile but always closing mouth
i had read a book record that while MA in Vienna , her mother try to make her teeth perfect coz her teeth was not good in look .
while the dentist see MA's teeth,he frown.
the book i read didn't record what's go on about her teeth.
(soory~~i can't remember name of book
)
is anyone know did MA's teeth make perfect after?
i think it is a strange question but just wonder know whether MA look perfect ,and in 18 centry,is there orthodontia like nowaday we live ?
thanks a lot

Indeed I believe that Marie-Thérèse asked a specialist to try to arrange the teeth of Marie-Antoinette when she was young, because her teeth were twisted a little.
But afterwards on her portraist she never opens the mouth, therefore we do not know really the state of her teeth when she was in France.

A French dentist by the name of Pierre Laveran was sent to Austria to straighten Maria Antonia's teeth. Unfortunately I don't know which teeth required treatment or what was done. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it was painful though.

Indeed, Marie Antoinette had to wear a special brace for correcting her dentition. Later, her son would inheritate "the strong Habsbourg lower jaw".

1. Hello ines, I think you are new member,welcome.
2. I read also about Antoinette's teeth correction in Vienne. But i haven't seen too many portraits of noble ladies then showing all their teeth with smile like a cliché movie star. It would have been considered bad taste, or something for a prostitute. And La Reine was always BTBC Bon ton, bon chic avec bon goût...very elegant naturally not by force.

Thank you,TsmnDs,interesting details.

The Duchesse de Polignac shows a toothy smile in some of her portraits. I've oftenn wondered why.

She does not really smile. She looks quite interrogative. It is different, isn't it ?

Indeed Lebrun said that Polignac had very beautiful teeth!

thanks for reply!

Didn't the dental work take a few months?

I've only read good things about MA's smile so Imagine it to be lovely.

Yes I also believe that this dental work lasted a few months, when she was still in Schönbrunn.

hah and to think they even had braces like they do now. They werent really the same braces but thin wires attached to her teeth and gums someone was telling me. It must have been painful.

The time to paint a portrait could last for hours and even days. There is no way that someone could hold a smile with teeth for that long. If you notice, no one from that time is smiling with an opened mouth. It does not matter it her teeth were perfect or crooked.

Yes, it did. Many contemporaries notice how Madame de Polignac's teeth were small and white, "like a child's teeth". SHe is represented twice with her mouth half open on Vigee Lebrun's painting.

The second example is more morbid, sorry. When they found back Madame de Lamballe's head, they noticed how white and clean her teeth were.

Then, when Madame d'Oliva (who played Antoinette's role in this necklace affair) was arrested, they made her profile and wrote that she was tall and stout... and had "strong teeth". Since she was supposed to resemble the queen, we could imagine that she was so...

I've read that Madame D'Olivia being tall, blonde and busty and quite attractive well resembled the Queen and was even taken to be the Queen when she appeared in court (though that is likely just fiction) ... but that once D'Olivia started to speak ... her course teeth and likely also her commoner's speach gave her away as a commoner and clearly not royalty, the Queen of France Marie Antoinette