By Joanne Balshi
Any person who thinks that a smile is not a signature of wealth has been deluded by witches and goblins. When my six-year-old son lost his front teeth, he was temporarily not the cutest little boy in America, but that was part of the natural cycle of life. Twenty years later, that same son, now a biomedical engineer, arrived at my surprise “costume” birthday party dressed as a pirate, with a shaved head, an earring in his ear, and an amazing set of teeth he had created to cover his natural smile. He did not have a mask. And I had no clue who he was. I recognized every other person at the party, but not my own son.
Case in point: don’t underestimate how important a smile is to the whole human experience. Most people go through life with an average smile; some have serious compromises with long term decay and missing teeth. But anyone can have an ageless, sparkling smile in perfect alignment that literally lights up the face. It just takes a dental practice fully dedicated to giving every patient the best smile possible and a patient with a passion to be the best that they can be.
Halloween signals the proximity of the holiday season and the time when good spirits abound. Perhaps after all the COVID doom, we owe ourselves the gift of some smile tweaking. Patients who have made this investment are in unison with their expressions of newness and physical energy surging from the person who looks back at them in the mirror and reflects a healthy refreshed new smile. Don’t hang in the company of scary characters circling on brooms or covering their faces with sheets. Be the one with the most enviable costume—a head-turning smile that glows 24-7.
