Francis Berger
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A Bobby Hull Smile

4/15/2019

4 Comments

 
My son has started losing his deciduous teeth. When he smiles, he reveals a giant, gaping void in his mouth. Yesterday I told him he had a Bobby Hull smile. He looked at me blankly and asked who Bobby Hull was. I informed him that Bobby Hull is a former hockey player famous for his explosiveness, speed, puck-handling skills, and legendary, toothless grin. I then found the following image of the great player on the internet.
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My son got a real kick out of the photo and immediately asked me why I hadn't lost my teeth when I played hockey. To answer his question, I opened my mouth and pointed to the missing premolar on my lower left side, which was the end result of an errant puck to the face during a pick-up game in my early twenties.

​My missing tooth does not show when I grin, and the gap is only visible if I open my mouth wide open, but I told my son that if the puck had hit me an inch to the right, I too would be the proud owner of a permanent Bobby Hull smile.  

My missing tooth impressed my son even more than Bobby Hull's smile had, and he immediately declared his desire to start playing hockey. I informed him I would consider his request over the summer, but that he could only play if he would wore a cage at all times. The last thing I need is a kid who loses his permanent teeth and ends up looking like one of hockey's legendary toothless Bobbies - like Bobby Clarke, for example.  
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In Canada and some parts of the United States, men with missing teeth exemplify toughness, but I don't think many people here in Hungary would regard a man's toothless Bobby grin as a sign of ruggedness, but rather as evidence of poor dental hygiene or sheer stupidity.

That's the thing with cultural nuances - they rarely translate well.   
4 Comments
Bruce Charlton
4/15/2019 11:24:16

As the son of a professor of conservative dentistry (specialising in crowns, bridges, implants etc) I can assure you that there are functionally effective and cosmetically good solutions to the toothless grin. (...albeit at a price!)

Reply
Francis Berger
4/15/2019 19:31:13

@ Bruce Charlton - I misread your comment in my earlier reply.

Yes, the solutions you suggest might make a gentleman more visually appealing, but they significantly diminish the "toughness" factor (for which the gentleman also paid a price, albeit not a monetary one)!

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William James Tychonievich link
4/19/2019 07:23:43

I briefly had such a smile following a motorcycle accident, but I got implants to replace the lost incisors. My nose was broken in the same accident -- prompting one of my students to ask, when I told him the story, "So that's not your real nose?"

Reply
Francis Berger
4/19/2019 10:50:22

William - Thanks for sharing that. Your story about the motorcycle accident you suffered only confirms my belief about lost teeth being a "tough guy" thing.

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