Watching Dumb & Dumber with Jim Carey, my son pointed out that Jim's chipped front tooth was real and not a film prop. I had a closer look and sure enough, he had exactly the same chip in his tooth that I had when I was a child.
At the age of 8, I was running through the garden along an uneven path winding its way up the mountain slope and, as I still do, tripped on a step. I knocked my face on the ground, chipping my recently emerged permanent tooth. The resultant gap enabled me to suck through a straw with my teeth clenched!
In those days, there was no easy fix and besides, it didn't bother me. Nobody teased me and I have no recollection of any memories associated with it. I certainly didn't regard it as unusual, although I have to say that such 'injuries' were normally attributed to boys. I went through my entire schooldays and teenage years with that chipped tooth, and remain completely unscarred by the experience. When I had it fixed at the age of 18 (presumably because I was starting work, or technology had become available), nobody noticed. I have asked various schoolfriends if they remember it, but they don't.
I can't imagine that in this day and age, where children are constantly bombarded by false ideas of reality regarding a person's appearance and the need for cosmetic surgery to correct the most minor of imperfections, I would have got off so lightly.
I think that one of the things I enjoy so much about the British TV programmes and movies is that nobody has had their teeth fixed, or wrinkles smoothed or noses straightened. They are real faces, like you would see in your own mirror.
Hollywood has caused untold emotional damage to millions, not to mention cash-strapped parents struggling to make their kids' teeth line up to match everyone else's.
I think teeth are part of one's personality. Or perhaps my chip just made me more aware that we should all be ourselves, not what we think someone wants us to be?
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