Christopher Muther of the Boston Globe thinks most people who whiten their teeth go overboard with the unnatural whiteness. We'd have to agree.

A friend met him for lunch and when she flashed her ivories, it was as if she had turned on a florescent light bulb. Her teeth are a shade of white not even found in the Arctic. I had to fight the urge to stare in amazement.

I was too polite to say it to her face, but I'm not too polite to say it in print. Teeth should resemble a color found in nature, not the xenon headlights that blind me in my rearview mirror as I drive.

A dentist he interviews says that in the early days of whitening, dentists didn't take teeth to these shades but now many people are insisting on having their teeth look like a porcelain toilet bowl.

He goes on to say that the rule of thumb for whitening is that a person's teeth should be no brighter than the whites of their eyes. That way the focus stays on the eyes, not on the mouth.