Having teeth or not having teeth defines an entire class of people. My friend has no teeth. He had mouth cancer and they took out his teeth. He was homeless and has brain damage and has been chronically homeless his whole life since age 20, but he comes from a wealthy family. But he has no teeth. The result?
Bums talk to him at the bus stop. People offer him whiskey and pot on the street. People with teeth tell him “get out of here” when he is in a store. It’s interesting to look at.
I had a molar break last winter and did not have the money for a root canal so had to have it pulled – now I am missing a tooth in the back of my mouth. For a long time it felt like a sibling had died. I still put my tongue in the hole, although not as much as before. I feel like losing a tooth made me more a part of the working class.
Having all your teeth in a community of ex-drug users is unusual. It shows either that you are a high-bottom user or that you come from money. Crystal Meth and crack take teeth right away. Alcohol takes teeth through lack of attention to maintenance as well as sugar production. Most of the people I know have implants or dentures or no teeth. I have all my original teeth ‘cept that one that broke.
Age. There are other members of my family who admitted to having holes in their mouths but I remember it was very important to my mother that my teeth be maintained. My mother came from immigrant parents of a bourgeosie class of Jews – who owned a plumbing company in New York City in the 1800s. They immigratd from Hungary/Poland. My mother married into my old-money anti-semetic WASP family – partly for the prestige of automatic hierarchy it provided. She continued to work as a teacher in the public school system and tried to make me into the perfect little recipient of her high standards.
I had none of it. I left that broken citadel behind and went off to find my own weird lifestyle. Now I try to live organically on nothing. One tooth missing makes me fit better into the family of people I hang with, but I know that my friend with no teeth will feel better about himself in our society if he has dentures even if they are uncomfortable.
yougetshownthelight 