I’m one of those people who for years felt uncomfortable smiling, due to disliking the contours of my face. My open smile looks like the Joker with indigestion. I have an added problem: two large, crooked front incisors that have an inverse ‘v’ gap between them. Ugly front teeth need to stay hidden. So why didn’t I have the teeth straightened as a teenager?
In my hometown, Epsom, my N.H.S. dentist was a woman born of a Victorian gothic novel. She took delight in extracting teeth with the largest needles and smallest amount of anaesthetic. So traumatic was some of my experiences of her wrenching out lingering milk teeth, that I dreaded returning to her. I made one last trembling trip around the age of thirteen. The devil dentist told me, with a fiery glint in her eye, that numerous teeth would have to be yanked out and a face-hugging metal brace would have to be applied - while I slept and... at school! I never returned to her dental practise and I didn’t go to any other dentist until my twenties. By then, I just accepted that I was an adult who rarely smiled. Jump forward fifteen or so years and I am in a bar in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong, with my best friend David. I’m chatting to the wife of one of his friends. She asks my opinion about toddlers and learning Chinese, two things I know little about. Perhaps it was the late-night, the sub-tropical heat or the alcohol, but I must have been relaxed...and smiling. This triggered her to tell me that she liked my teeth. My teeth? Yes, the big gaping gap in my teeth means luck in this part of the world. You have lucky teeth! With this revelation ringing in my soul, Dave insisted I send him frequent pictures of me smiling. With his training and my wife’s loving encouragement, the corners slowly lifted. I learned to smile. My open smile still looks like the Joker with acid reflux, but I am not ashamed of my alphabetical teeth anymore. They spell part of who I am, my luck, my story.
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AuthorA poetic-essay style blog with a limit of 365 words. 365 like the days of the year - my name being one of those days! Archives
March 2020
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