By Dr. Moses Jok Kuol Aluong, BDS
“A smile remains the most inexpensive gift I can bestow on anyone, and yet its powers can vanquish kingdoms.”
~ Og Mandino
I learned something extremely interesting about my milk teeth back in the day. Sadly, I never got the chance to fully appreciate my dental formula and the shade of my teeth firsthand. Mirrors and cameras were rare in my setting, and honestly, I was too young to care about such details. This was in the early 2000s.
But reports filled the voids. Those pleasant compliments from my aunts and ‘mothers.’ You know they are such amazing people. So here they would never tire of exclaiming about how extremely white my teeth were. Apparently, I was the Roberto Firmino of my village (not in their words though). (Guys, Google Firmino’s teeth; very white.) Sure, most kids have white milk teeth, with varying degrees of whiteness. But in my case, something must have been special about the smile to have all that attention.
And no, I’m not talking about the color of my gums! You already know how darkly pigmented gums enhance smiles. They give a very beautiful background, right. Well, that wasn’t the case with me. I had pink gums, which, in the context of my society, should’ve “ruined” my smile. But somehow, they didn’t. What masked this fact? Maybe the whiteness of my teeth. Maybe it was the alignment (don’t tempt me to start on that interesting topic). Anyway, I’m not sure what it was, but the smile stood out.
This was so serious that I earned the childhood nickname “Beny ë Lec,” which loosely translates to “The Lord of Teeth.” Goodness, what an experience.
Notwithstanding these sweet praises, the phase didn’t last long. The shedding phase hit. My beautiful teeth fell out one by one. I became edentulous. Oh, the jokes about my toothless smile set in! “Nyaar lo puny puny etc.”
Fortunately, again, the phase was short-lived. I got my bigger, permanent teeth—duller in shade, yes, but functional. They weren’t exactly yellow or brown, but to those used to my milk teeth, they were a disappointment.
Still, I carried on. After all, their main job was to chew food, and they performed that role like champs.
Then came 2012. Rumors began circulating that I had a bright smile again. I mean, remember the same dull permanent teeth. Check the picture above. Haha, what a comeback! Actually, a friend approached me one day. A lady, of course. She asked if I knew why she used to bring all her math questions to me, even when she could solve some on her own.
“I have no idea,” I replied.
“To get a chance to look at your white teeth,” she confessed.
I froze. “You mean my teeth are white?”
“Of course! The whitest teeth in this class,” she said.
I looked around the class in an attempt to quantify her conclusion. It was really a big class. We were a large cohort of primary 8 candidates from several schools across Bor Town converged for “Coaching” at Bor ‘A’ Primary School. Guys imagine what this comment left me with. It definitely boosted my confidence in my smile, greatly.
What was my secret? Nothing magical. Maybe, something terrible, instead. I brushed with a slender neem miswak (Lang Karthum). I didn’t like the conventional miswak (Achuil) because it was too hard and sometimes pierced my gums. After the neem miswak, I’d use a hard toothbrush (big mistake, don’t do it!) and fluoridated toothpaste (good one, keep doing it). I would sometimes be tempted to try cow dung ash when I passed in a cattle camp, or charcoal., as everyone else used them, too. I now know that these were dangerous options for my teeth and oral health generally. But yeah, the bright smile came from a composite of these good and bad choices. Or more rightly, the bright smile survived some of those bad choices.
The news about my smile faded for a while until I became a dental student. Second comeback per se. People began connecting my career choice to my smile. Some even assumed my smile improved because I was now a dentist. (Spoiler: it didn’t work that way.) Recently, I got a random text from a friend on campus.
“Whenever I think of people with bright smiles, it’s always you. What do you do? Which toothpaste do you use? I want a bright smile too.”
I was still processing her questions when she interrupted: “I’m asking you as someone with a bright smile, not as a dentist.”
I had to share my tips, of course – the nitty gritties of how I make it as an individual, and not as a dentist per her ask, to keep my smile natural.
My Advice for Your Best Smile
A bright smile isn’t just about the natural whiteness of your teeth – it sometimes is. It’s by and large about how you care for what the Lord has given you. White teeth can’t help receding gums, same way that good intact gums can’t prevent caries. It is about caring for the whole formula.
~Amos 4:6
“And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”
Preserve your smile by:
- Brushing properly twice daily—after breakfast and before bed.
- Protecting your teeth with mouthguards if you play contact sports like wrestling, basketball, or football.
- Regulating your diet and practicing good oral hygiene after sugary foods.
- Seeing a dentist every after six months.
Restore what’s lost. Whether it’s broken, decayed, discolored, or missing teeth. Your dentist can help.