Family legend has it that I have only one dimple as a result of a fall down a stairscase.
People commented on that one dimple just a little too much for my awkward pre-adolescent comfort, so rather than throwing myself down the stairs on the other side I took to smiling with clenched cheeks.
Tight-lips soon followed to cover poor dentistry. I remember looking at the proof of my oh-so-serious senior pictures thinking how good it would look on a book jacket. Today, I see a candidate for Lithium.
In later years dentists would look in my mouth, decide they didn't know where to begin and let me go with a cleaning.
Both my daughters had great smiles from the start, but a few years each of braces could have cast them in toothpaste commercials. The contrast with my forced and frozen look was obvious in family pictures. Medically and cosmetically, my mouth was a mess.
Then came Tom Sayer.
If you're ever on St. Simons Island (or the lower 48 states) looking for the best dentist around, call Dr. Sayer. He worked in machine tools as a younger man and brings that patience and precision to the chair.
He laid out a multi-year plan including an orthodondist and a variety of procedures and appliances.
And thus I made a major professional presentation in San Franciso a few years back with more wire and girders in my mouth than the Golden Gate Bridge.
I loved it when the orthodontist receptionist would ask on the phone if I needed an after school apppointment or the wires would snap and embed in my cheek. I begin to wonder if there were names for people who paid to put themselves through this much pain.
I was down to just top and bottom braces when someone snapped a picture of me in a group of relatives at an impromptu reunion and there it was, a little tinny, but my smile.
I looked in the mirror to see if I could do it again. After several Jim Carrey-like face distortions I gave up.
But it kept coming back in other candid pictures. Turns out it was always there. By the time Dr. Sayer got to the bridges and bleaching, I was like a pageant queen without a tiera. Rather than painfully parsing them out, I now give smiles to just about anyone who looks like they need one.
I've still got one dimple, but it's developed it's own solitary charm.
Mark Twain said that wrinkles should only indicate where smiles have been, so I'll skip the Bo-Tox and wear mine proudly.

Copyright 2004 Judi Griggs