Did Leo do anything to his teeth?
Some believe he did veneers.... but let's investigate.
It was early February 1998 and I was 21 years old. A junior in college that decided to spend his year abroad.
And on that day we were in Nassau, Bahamas about to push off for our ‘Semester at Sea’ voyage.
Basically it was a small cruise ship where 700+ students (mainly American) and teachers set off to circumvent the world by sea with something like 12 stops in various countries along the way (like Venezuela, South Africa, India, Hong Kong, etc.).
It was a trip that would change who I was a person and my destiny. Because I always sought a life abroad after that and lived pretty much my entire adult life overseas.
But as we were preparing to begin the voyage I remember looking at my dad who was waving at me from the harbor and feeling very powerful emotions.
I was having my ‘Leo’ moment.
You see the blockbuster movie, Titanic, had been released in December 1997 and I’d watched it only a couple weeks before I left on this voyage.
To me the movie had many parallels to my life at the time….
Leo was leaving Europe for his new life in America.
I was embarking on this voyage that would change me in so many ways.
Many folks even mentioned that I looked a bit like Leo back then.
I even had the Celine Dion song “My Heart Will Go On” playing on repeat on my cassette player as I waved at my dad when we were pushing off.
Based on that movie Leo had become like an icon for me and would remain that way for about the next decade.
So he feels a bit more special to me than the others as I analyze him now. Because yes… I was a “wannabe Leo” hahaha.
Who is Leonardo DiCaprio?
If you haven’t heard of Leonardo DiCaprio then honestly you’ve probably been living under a rock. LOL
He is one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, with a career spanning over three decades.
He rose to fame as a teenage heartthrob in the early 1990s with roles in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and the television series “Growing Pains.”
His breakout came with 1997’s “Titanic,” which catapulted him to global superstardom and made him one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.
I remember roaming down an aisle in a market in Kuala Lumpur in about April 1998 (during my Semester at Sea voyage) and seeing pictures of him plastered everywhere.
Leo even seemed for awhile like he surpassed the global popularity of Michael Jordan, who was probably the most recognized face in the world at the time.
Since then, he’s built an impressive filmography working with directors like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan, earning an Academy Award for “The Revenant” in 2016.
He had great structure when he was young
In his youth, Leo had great natural structure that made him a heartthrob for an entire generation.
During his “Titanic” era in the late 1990s, his facial structure was remarkable—strong jawline, well-defined cheekbones, and that classic horizontal profile line that indicates proper biomechanics.
His early films like “Romeo + Juliet” and “The Beach” showcased someone in the top percentile structurally.
But his teeth were not perfect as you can see in this pic above of him in “The Beach” (2000). There was some crowding and the teeth were uneven and a bit discolored.
But he had great development none-the-less because the skeleton compensates extremely well if you don’t tamper with it.
And he hadn’t tampered with it…. yet.
His structure today looks worse than it “should have been” in my view
Fast forward to today, and while DiCaprio remains decent looking at 51 years old, he’s degraded a lot more and faster than he should have in my view.
His face has lost most of that sharp definition and dimension that characterized his younger years.
The jawline angles up instead of the strong horizontal line he used to have.
His skull appears to have “deflated” somewhat, with the characteristic look of someone whose biomechanics have declined.
With the structure he had in his youth… he probably should have aged more like Brad Pitt (62 years old)
.
Or Mark Walberg (age 54)
But he declined much, much faster… which often leads me to the hypothesis that he did some artificial stuff to his teeth.
So let’s investigate.
What did Leo do to his teeth?
When I did my research it became clear that there was no smoking gun for some kind of orthodontics or veneers with Leo.
Many people ‘believe’ he may have done veneers, but there is no clear evidence of it.
For example below is the analysis of an orthodontist where he says that Leo may have done veneers and some mild orthodontics.
But he’s not confident that it is the case.
And in this analyis below you can see the dentist clearly saying she does not think he did veneers.
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But his teeth did get a little bit straighter and more aligned over the years so i have a feeling some light orthodontics (eg. clear aligners) and teeth whitening was done.
Particularly when you reflect on the crowding he had in “The Beach” (2000), which now seems to have disappeared.
I do not, however, think that it moved things very much. Rather it was more likely small, subtle changes that aimed to retain his original smile for the most part.
And this is further backed up by the fact that we never saw some major neurological drop in Leo.
Sure he doesn’t look as good on screen today as he did in the 90’s, but he’s still an awesome actor. Who never had any major psychological ‘issues’ like you saw of some stars that did ortho like Anna Nicole Smith, Brett Favre, Lil Wayne, and some others that I have covered.
Rather his decline was more natural, but probably with some subtle acceleration through clear aligners or something.
Closing thoughts
Leo is probably the Hollywood actor I’ve most connected with throughout my adult life.
He started out as my icon from “Titanic” as I was finishing college and then in each phase of my life seemed to do movies that reflected a bit how I was feeling.
For example when he did “The Beach” in 2000 I visited Thailand shortly after the movie and tramped through the chaos of Kao San Road and then partied at the Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan. Shortly after I left the US to begin my int’l adventure and live in Japan in early 2001.
Then in 2013 when he did “The Wolf of Wall Street” I was trying to hustle to develop a startup at the time (that ultimately failed) and would sometimes reflect on things he did or said in the film.
So i’m rooting for Leo…. I hope he doesn’t do anything further to his teeth and I hope to see him do a lot more great films in the years to come.
Because a part of who I evolved to become… I credit to Leo. That spirit of just a normal kid trying to make it in this world and using whatever he’s got to try and get there.
And it is that person that weathered the storm that biomechanics threw at me this past decade.
But I wasn’t gonna go out like Howard Hughes from Leo’s film “The Aviator.” Hughes succumbed to OCD and went nuts
.
Rather I want my story to end more like Leo’s character, Amsterdam Vallon, from Gangs of New York (2002) who successfully gets his revenge to become the king of the streets.
And in my case… I’ll get my revenge against the dental/orthodontic industry that almost crushed me.
Wow that’s an interesting story and great to have more insight into your journey! Thanks for sharing.
Great story.
Leo does seem to be morphing into Jack Nicholson.😉
Which celebrities do you think have most retained their structure?