Yes and the author tells a story about Western culture but I kept asking "how do you know?" Eastern cultures may have the same bias but without enough technological development over their history to actualize it at the same rate that we have.
Maybe he doesn't. If I tell you a story about my culture I don't necessarily imply to know about everyone else's, too. For example I've got no clue how whitening plays a role in much of the world as a beauty standard, but I know how it plays a role where I'm from. And indeed standards may not be the same. For example in much of Asia it's often a beauty standard to have the lightest skin colour possible, for light-skinned people. While this exists in the west for dark skinned people, light skinned people generally have the opposite and getting a tanned skin is considered better than a pale one. How that works for teeth I don't know, although I'd imagine in most cities white teeth as a beauty standard are probably fairly common but it's just an assumption.
http://www.traveldudes.org/travel-tips/tooth-blackening-forg...