Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent defends editing her three-year-old daughter’s teeth in photos

Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent isn’t ashamed she edited her three-year-old daughter’s teeth on social media.

The 34-year-old mother of two spoke out amid criticisms that she whitened her toddler’s teeth on her Instagram Story on December 2.

“I’m usually the type to not read/ignore comments,” she wrote over a close-up picture of her daughter Ocean’s smile. “But we are from Utah honey… we are teeth people! So, I could not let this comment slide.”

In the image posted to Kent’s Instagram Story, Ocean’s two front teeth appeared slightly black and blue compared to the rest of her pearly whites.

“Ocean has a fond relationship with her wild side and enjoys not listening,” Kent continued. “She fell off her bike face first. There is trauma to the root of her two front teeth (yes, I’m the mom who usually edits this. Go ahead and judge).

“The root isn’t dead, but we go to the dentist every 3-6 months for check-ins. They will likely have to be pulled or she will have to have a root canal,” the reality star said. “Ocean thinks they are cool.”

The speculation spurred following Kent’s most recent Instagram post with Ocean, in which she was seen on the couch with her three-month-old sister, Sosa, on her lap. Instead of keeping Ocean’s two front teeth their natural bruised shade, Kent appeared to use a photo editing tool to whiten them. Another Instagram post from November 4 appeared to have Ocean’s two front teeth whitened, as well as a third photo of Kent posing with her daughters on October 22.

The mother of two welcomed Ocean with ex-fiancé Randall Emmett in March 2021. The former couple were engaged for three years, before Kent accused Emmett of infidelity.

In September of this year, Kent gave birth to Sosa via intrauterine insemination, otherwise known as IUI — a fertility treatment in which sperm is surgically inserted in the uterus to fertilize an egg.

Before she got pregnant, however, the Bravo star knew she didn’t want to wait for another man to come around to have another child. Kent spoke to Cosmopolitan in January about wanting to give Ocean a sibling, whether she was in a romantic relationship or not.

“It was such a strange thing that was happening because everyone would tell me, ‘You’re going to find somebody,’” she said. “And I got to thinking, ‘Why does my wanting more children need to involve another person?’

“When I had my life go in a very different direction, I knew I wanted more kids,” Kent added.