Talking Point with Vicky Turrell: 'In the 50s the dentist came to school in a caravan!'
How white are your teeth? Are they white enough? I have always prided myself in my good teeth and always smiled with confidence, but now as I look at the announcers on the news, or anyone on TV come to that, I am filled with dismay. My teeth look positively grey in comparison.
What are they doing to get these shining jewels? And not only that they seem to have a lot more than me, even though I have no gaps. And what has happened to the canine teeth? Mine are still there ‘dog teeth’ we called them, but some people’s teeth are even, like piano keys, what have I done wrong?
When I was a little girl in the 1950s cleaning teeth was not high on our agenda. We had no bathroom in our farmhouse and so we used our cold washhouse. Here our Mam cooked and did her laundry along with washing pots and pans. We rubbed our hands and faces and cleaned our teeth when we could in the big Belfast sink.
The dentist came to school once a year in a caravan which was parked on the playground. I always got ‘top marks’ for my good teeth. Looking back, I think that must be attributed to our diet of fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden. Also in my early days, sweets were rationed so there was not much sugar in our diet to cause damage to teeth.
It now seems that to keep my smile in fashion I should get my teeth whitened and shaped and perhaps veneered. I think I will have to stick with what I have got, but my eyes are another story, I cannot ignore those.
Like my teeth my eyes are showing their age. I had two successful operations in the last few years but then one needed more treatment. I went to the hospital and all is well but had to book an appointment at the opticians. And guess what? I need another pair of glasses. The expense is unbelievable. I asked to use the same frame and just replace the lens but apparently, I did that last time so the frames may not be strong enough. I decided on a new purple colour for the frames they brighten my face and perhaps hide the fact that I do not have pearl-like teeth.
On another bright note I bought an amaryllis at a garden centre recently. I bought my bulb for £8 it will have a red flower. Then yesterday I saw what looked like a similar bulb in the supermarket it was only £6 so I bought that too! It will be white, like a modern smile.
