The Anatomy of a Smile

“With two years or so of braces, your smile can be improved wonderfully!”
So spoke The Dentist. I did not trust myself to answer. Quite unwittingly, the man had pushed a most sore and taut nerve. I believe I left the room with my lips pursed together so tight, it drew quite a few alarmed looks form those unfortunate enough to glance my way.

Their alarm would have turned to downright fear had they been even more ill of luck to have glimpsed the generous invective churning in my mind.

I spent the remainder of the day in a foul temper.

What got to me was not really as self-centered as may perhaps be deduced; it was not the implication that my smile was rotten, but the assertion that braces could improve one’s smile.

How superficial does one have to be to think of a smile as a mere display of teeth? A smile is not just an exercise of the facial muscles-that is simply the external manifestation of an inner, far deeper emotion. It is the projection of no less a feeling than human joy.

The beauty of a smile does not come from perfectly aligned teeth, but from the emotion behind it.

When a model “smiles”, all she really does is spread her lips wide and bare a set of teeth white enough to make a dentist swoon.

When a child grins at her mother, she does so with every inch and fiber of her being, with her eyes, with her very soul- her rotten and caries ridden dentures notwithstanding.

The child’s smile would melt a heart of stone, simply because it shows happiness and innocence and love. It shows emotion.

That is a true smile. One which is from the heart and is mutually uplifting. Simply baring ones’ teeth, or spreading ones’ lips- all too common in today’s cosmetic world- is not the same as smiling. It is simply a gesture forced from us, plastic and fake.

How then the tall claims of the dental gentry?

Can braces project the emotions of the wearer? Can the sight of them impart joy to others?

As far as my knowledge goes, even the most devoted dentist would not claim such wonders.

All braces do, all a ring of metal can do, is straighten the teeth, perhaps cosmeticize a face plastic enough already.

Improve a smile, they cannot. Because very simply, the teeth have precious little to do with a smile.

When you’re simply flexing a few facial muscles, nothing is going to make it any more than just that.

And when you’re truly smiling, even the most ugly, rotten, tramp-worhty teeth are not going to make it any less beautiful.