The Healthy Smile: Can You Make Me Smile Again?

by Jeffrey Gross, DDS, FAGD of The Healthy Smile

That’s a tough question. When this question came to me, there were so many things going through my head. If you think about this for a little bit, this question would be fitting for a psychologist or a physician. We need to understand why we are not smiling. Depression, grief and a host of other causes can come to mind. In our case, we were not happy with our front teeth. Every time an opportunity came along to smile, our embarrassment or put in a milder term, our dislike of our appearance causes us to keep the upper lip pulled down cunningly covering the teeth. Our patient did not show much of his teeth due to their position in the mouth. That coupled with a dingy color kept him from smiling.

Another factor working against him was his gender. Did you ever notice the difference in the degree of teeth that show or better put the expression on people’s faces when they speak? If you look around and pay attention, you will find that women tend to smile more than men when they talk. Yes, there are exceptions to this sweeping generalization, but the difference is noticeable.

In a recent Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting essay that came from a new book. The title of the book is “Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog” (Simon & Schuster). The author, Dave Barry, had just turned 70 and was similar in dog years to his beloved Lucy. He pointed out that Lucy loved everyone and engaged with everyone that she met. No stranger could escape the showering of kisses from her tongue.

He went on to say that in contrast to himself, her constant love and dog “smiling” was a trait that he did not have. He was content just being alone. He attributed this to his gender. Women make friends so quickly and share their most intimate secrets. Guys talk around the issues, and if there weren’t sports in the world, men would have nothing to talk about says, Mr. Barry. Men are so much more reserved. We don’t give out our smiles as quickly as our female counterparts.

There was another item of interest in the news that proposes that are front teeth position developed as we

gravitated to a softer diet in our history. The theory is that soft food is handled better with the upper front teeth over the lower front teeth than any other position. Once our upper front teeth are over our lower teeth, we developed many words with the letter “f.” The creation of this sound occurs when we touch our upper front teeth to our lower lip. One word that involves the “f’ sound is “friend.” Just like Lucy, the dog, having friends and being friendly naturally evokes a smile. Now that our goal is to be friendly, what can I do to help my patient smile?

I try to emphasize three components. One aspect is the position of the teeth and their relationship to each other. Teeth that are in the wrong place and crooked teeth are not attractive. The second emphasis is on tooth size. A balanced and uniform size is present in nature. Over time this can get out of sync and become unharmonious. Correcting this with movement and possibly cosmetic crowns is an easy fix for both problems.

The third component is the color. We all love our teeth to be clean and bright. I have tried a variety of whitening systems over the years, and I am always searching for new products on the market. I came across one recently that we are incorporating into our practice. It is a fast procedure performed in the office system that can be used as a standalone product or in conjunction with the excellent results with our safe take-home system. I am so excited about this that I am offering it to my patients at a reduced fee of $150. Lucy, the dog, teaches us to engage and be friendly. Having a confident and captivating smile is something that is appreciated by everyone. It is so hard to be angry at someone who is always smiling and happy. Call Joyce at 440-892-1810 and make an appointment to brighten, whiten and create a dazzling smile. We look forward to hearing from you. As always, our goal is to help you develop and maintain a beautiful, healthy smile.

– Jeffrey Gross, DDS, FAGD is an Ohio licensed general dentist and is on the staff of Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine.