Tom Cruise is basically the gold standard for Hollywood leading men. He’s 63, still jumping out of planes, and flashes a smile that looks like it belongs on a billboard for the entire concept of joy. But if you look at a photo of him from 1981 and compare it to now, you’re looking at two completely different dental maps. Honestly, the tom cruise teeth before after journey is one of the most interesting "slow-burn" transformations in celebrity history because it wasn't a one-and-done surgery. It was decades of work.
It's sorta wild to remember that the guy who played Maverick didn't start with those perfectly white, aligned chompers. Early in his career, his teeth were—to put it bluntly—a bit of a mess. They were crowded, discolored, and wildly out of alignment.
The Outsiders and the Missing Cap
Back in 1983, when Cruise was filming The Outsiders, he was playing Steve Randle, a tough, street-smart kid. Most actors use makeup or costumes to get into character, but Tom went a step further. He actually asked his dentist to remove a cap from his front tooth.
Why was there a cap in the first place? When he was a teenager, Tom got smacked in the face with a hockey puck during a game. It chipped his front tooth and apparently caused enough damage that he needed a root canal and a crown fairly early on. By taking that crown off for the movie, he revealed a discolored, broken, and slightly "dead" looking tooth. It worked for the role, but it definitely didn't scream "future world-famous heartthrob."
That Famous "Middle Tooth" Mystery
If you really want to win a bar trivia night, talk about Tom Cruise’s midline. Most people’s smiles are symmetrical. You have a line right down the middle of your face, and your two front teeth sit on either side of that line.
💡 You might also like: Finding the Perfect Donny Osmond Birthday Card: What Fans Often Get Wrong
Tom? Not so much.
Because of that early hockey injury and some missing teeth on one side of his mouth, his entire upper row shifted. This created what dental nerds call a "midline shift." Basically, his right central incisor—his big front tooth—sits almost exactly in the center of his face, directly under his nose.
Does he still have it?
Yep. Even after millions of dollars in dental work, that "uni-tooth" look is still there. It’s a great reminder that even the most high-end cosmetic dentistry has its limits. You can straighten the teeth and make them white, but moving an entire jaw's worth of bone structure to fix a midline is a whole different beast. He seemingly chose to keep the quirk rather than go through massive reconstructive jaw surgery.
The 40-Year-Old with Braces
In 2002, Tom did something pretty brave for a guy whose face is his paycheck. He showed up to the premiere of Minority Report wearing braces.
📖 Related: Martha Stewart Young Modeling: What Most People Get Wrong
They weren't the old-school "metal mouth" tracks, though. He opted for ceramic braces with clear wires, which were the high-tech option at the time. He was 40 years old, arguably the biggest star on the planet, and he was just hanging out with brackets on his teeth.
This was a turning point for adult orthodontics. Before Tom, people kinda thought braces were for middle schoolers. After Tom, the "adult braces" trend exploded. He reportedly wore them for about a year to fix the crowding and try to pull that shifted midline back toward the center, though as we know, the "middle tooth" remained his signature.
Veneers, Whitening, and the Zirconia Upgrade
Once the braces came off, the real polishing started. You don't get that "Top Gun: Maverick" glow just by brushing twice a day. Expert dentists who've analyzed his smile (like the folks at various high-end clinics) suggest he’s had a few rounds of porcelain veneers.
Veneers are thin shells of porcelain bonded to the front of the teeth. They fix:
👉 See also: Ethan Slater and Frankie Grande: What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
- The uneven lengths of his original teeth.
- The permanent staining from his younger years.
- The small chips and wear-and-tear from decades of doing his own stunts.
In the 2020s, his teeth look even better than they did in the 90s. There’s a theory in the dental community that he eventually upgraded his older porcelain work to Zirconia crowns or more modern veneers. These materials reflect light more like natural enamel, which is why his smile looks "bright" but not necessarily like a row of white piano keys.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s a common myth that Tom Cruise has "fake" teeth or dentures. That’s almost certainly not true. Everything we see suggests a "preservative" approach. He’s kept his natural teeth as the foundation but used orthodontics and cosmetic overlays to mask the structural issues caused by that childhood hockey puck.
Also, people often think his teeth were "fixed" once. In reality, dental work of that caliber requires maintenance. Veneers usually need replacing every 10–15 years, and whitening is an ongoing process.
Actionable Insights for Your Own Smile
You don't need a Mission Impossible budget to fix your teeth, but Tom's journey offers some real-world lessons:
- Midlines aren't everything. If the biggest movie star in the world can have an off-center front tooth and still be considered handsome, you probably don't need to stress about a slight asymmetry in your own smile.
- Adult braces are fine. If you're 30 or 50 and want straight teeth, just do it. The stigma died the second Tom Cruise walked a red carpet with ceramic brackets.
- Trauma needs long-term care. If you had a sports injury as a kid, like Tom did, that tooth is a "ticking clock." It might need a root canal, a crown, or a veneer later in life because the internal structure is compromised.
- Veneers are a commitment. They look great, but remember they are usually permanent because the dentist has to shave down a tiny bit of your natural enamel to fit them.
If you’re looking to replicate the tom cruise teeth before after result, start with a consultation for clear aligners or ceramic braces first. Fixing the position of the teeth is always better (and cheaper in the long run) than trying to hide crooked teeth under a layer of porcelain.