At the height of Lindsay Lohan's career in the early 2000s, her smile was one of her most important assets. From Parent Trap to Mean Girls, that cute smirk established her as a teen idol and made all the girls across America want to fix their teeth so they could be like her.
But somewhere along the way, when she was going through the less than glamorous celebrity lifestyle, her teeth took the brunt of it, and her appearance started to diminish. Her mistakes aside, Lohan has been up to a lot since Mean Girls, her last great role. Now, her red locks are back, she's starring in movies again, and she's fixed those horrible teeth. She's changed a lot since her days of scandals.
But what exactly happened to her teeth that made them almost fall out of her mouth? Here's what we know.
Updated on December 22, 2022 by Abigail Thomas: Lindsay Lohan has been the talk of Hollywood in many different ways for her entire career. She started as a childhood actor and had some iconic roles such as her part in Mean Girls, but for a long time her name had a negative connotation. Lohan was the party-girl of the entertainment industry, and it severely impacted her career as an actress. Actors and directors did not want to work with her due to her substance abuse and bad reputation. Now, Lohan is back with a refreshed look and she has begun to star in movies again such as Netflix's Falling For Christmas. While she is doing better than ever, her days of partying had a severe impact on her health. Specifically, her teeth.
We All Noticed Something Was Up With Her Teeth In 2011
When Lohan appeared on a red carpet in 2011, she gave everyone the shock of their lives with her clearly chipped and stained teeth. This was around the time when Lohan's career had definitely gone downhill.
The Sun described her teeth as "seriously chipped and discolored," and others blamed her hard-partying and drug-using lifestyle.
Her reps did not comment, but publications like E! Online decided to take matters into their own hands to figure out what had happened to her teeth. They had Dr. Arthur Glosman take a look at the pictures of her teeth from the red carpet appearance to diagnose her. He said she needed a dentist immediately.
"While Lindsay Lohan is not a patient of mine, and I have not examined her teeth, in the photographs, it appears she has some serious dental problems that need immediate professional dental attention," Gosman said.
"Ms. Lohan is a beautiful young lady, but her smile indicates some health problems. It looks as though she has yellow-stained teeth that are chipped at the edges, and possible tooth decay, which could be caused by lack of oral good hygiene, drinking too much coffee, tea, soda, and smoking. A visit to her dentist for a thorough exam and treatment protocol should be done immediately."
While he did say there was a solution, that didn't mean it would be easy. He said she would need to get "a full set of X-rays, a cleaning, decay removal, and bleaching."
"For at home dental care, I tell my patients to follow the Glosman four-step approach to total care for a beautiful smile; one, brush, two, floss, three, mouth wash, and four incorporate a healthy lifestyle with sound nutrition, moderate exercise, and management of stress.
"Cosmetically speaking, I know how important a beautiful smile is in the entertainment world as I see this with my celebrity patients," he concluded. "Ms. Lohan has an added incentive to take better care of her teeth as a beautiful smile is just not indicative of a healthy mouth, but I would venture to say it could impact her livelihood."
She Got The Care She Needed
Soon after the reports about her teeth started circulating, Lohan shared a photo of her newly cleaned teeth on her WhoSay page.
"Thanks Dr. Dorfman for the zoom," Lohan captioned the photo. "My gums are so sore though!" But along with her new teeth was a cigarette and what looked to be alcohol on her table. Maybe she wanted her teeth to be sparkly for her upcoming court appearance.
Her new teeth didn't last long. In 2014, fans were worried about her recovery when she was given a cocktail of drugs to sedate her during dental surgery under her insistence that she couldn't undergo surgery without being sedated. Even the anesthesiologist Shazhad Khan, who put her under, had concerns about using the drugs.
"A person with addiction, of course, you’re always concerned. Someone who’s been in rehab…the medications I do use are addictive, but I try to minimize it as much as possible," he said. The reason for the surgery was to fix a broken veneer, and she revealed that she'd also had a root canal the year before.
By 2018, though, her teeth were back to sparkling white and chip-less, most likely due to veneers: new teeth, new life. At least Lohan can feel better about herself as she embarks on this new stage in her career.
Since then, Lohan's teeth have remained out of the tabloids. She has been able to work her way back into the spotlight with Netflix's Falling For Christmas and has an upcoming project for 2023 called Irish Wish. Mean Girls fans are hoping that Lohan has put her party days behind her for the sake of her career and her teeth.