Never Underestimate The Power Of A Great Set Of Gleaming Teeth.

No wonder dentists & orthodontists are smiling brightly all the way to the bank...

A visit to the local surgery reminded me of it. Waiting in line to get medication I happened to see one of the local young women sitting there on the bench and she greeted me with a smile and a whispered Hello, as one does when the waiting room is packed with a bored and well hearing crowd. Gosh, nobody ever imagines that anyone else can hear them, especially if they are afflicted with hearing aids.

A few weeks ago I bit off more than I could chew and had to frequent the less popular branch of medicine...the dentist. For some reason I was talking to one of the mothers, a mother with a twelve year old boy, about my dread of the dentist. Not surprisingly she isn't fond of them either and it wasn't long before the two of us were comparing teeth.

We both grew up in the era of Coca Cola, sugar, ice creams and chips with our gnashers reflecting this diet although, reflecting is not the right word because the mercury tends to take the shine out of everything. I suppose I should be grateful that I didn't get gold fillings because that would have been a bit embarrassing never mind dangerous.

While we lamented the state of our less than pearly white teeth ( have you ever tried to keep your teeth white while giving in to the lure of coffee and red wine? Oh, and dark chocolate... ) her son was listening to us and sported an expression of Oh my god, what next?. Naturally his teeth have been filled and drilled with the white stuff.

So there were the two of us older lot, showing our rows of teeth very akin to horses drawing back their lips before trying to nip you. Not a pretty sight! Well, out of the blue her son dropped a comment that made us smile:

" You know, Sophie * from Deutsch Schützen has the most perfect, white and beautiful teeth I've ever seen."

* Naturally in a village the size of ours, I had to change her name!

Classic to know that young lads do also take notice of a gleaming set of white teeth....especially in an attractive woman who's in her mid twenties!

Biggi