TEETH (trt 26:40): Dialogue Script

 

0:01-0:22;03: TITLE SEQUENCE

SMILE STORIES (6 UP):

 

0:22;10-0:26;18: Markus Wailand: I think that you can express a lot of things with a smile.

 

0:26;23-0:30;10: Karina Beznicki: I think a beautiful smile helps ease social interactions.

 

0:30;12-0:32;20: Anette Baldauf: It’s a reflection of my feeling good.

 

0:32;22-0:37;10: Hosetta Reid: Sometimes I forget and smile broad, and I say, oh lord, they see all this raggedy…

 

0:37;12-0:42;22: Kil Yi: I like my smile because smile allows me to disguise some of my feelings.

 

0:42;25-0:46;25: Beo Morales: Well, I like to smile but, no, I don’t like my (smile) because I’m missing all my teeth.

 

0:46;28-0:49;05: Karina Beznicki: I think women tend to smile more.

 

0:50;02-1:05;15: Markus Wailand: And it’s not only like the positive, happy easy things. With a smile you can sort of destroy an opinion, or you can give somebody a really hard time. You can refuse anything with a smile.

 

0:49;26- 1:09;26: SMILES ANIMATION

Images of various smiles and different looking teeth

 

01:10;10-01:28;08: Beo Morales: When one doesn’t have teeth, one… is less… I mean I know now, I don’t even want to go to social situations. I don’t want to be in social situations and I know that I do this whole thing with my month, so that I can talk and no one can see my teeth, that they’re all missing.

 

01:34;27-01:57;25: CANETTI ANIMATION

“The most striking natural instrument of power in man is the teeth. The way the are arranged in rows and their striking smoothness are quite different from anything else belonging to the body.” Elias Canetti, “Crowds and Power”

 

01:58;09-02:17;13: Dr William West: You can get a baby, an infant, who has no teeth, and they can smile and they’re very happy. But as we get older, in society, what people think of us, is important. The teeth are a very important part of that, of our physical makeup. And if we look good, then we feel good.

 

02:17;14-03:01;15: ATTRACTIVE SMILE SURVEY ANIMATION

How Important is it to Have an Attractive Smile?

• Important for the ideal date: 84%

• Important for succeeding at work: 75%

• Important for getting the job of your dreams: 74%

• Important for making new friends: 71%

 

The Invisalign Smile Survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Align Technology Inc.

This survey explored the importance of smiles in relation to business and careers, dating and marriage, the social arena, and the overall value of smiles and self-esteem.

The survey sampled 1000 American men and women, between the ages of 18 and 50.

 

TEETH STORIES (4 Up):

 

03:01;28- 03:18;20: Anette Baldauf: My story with my teeth is that I think I didn’t notice that they’re somehow crooked, until I came to the States. In Austria it seems like most of my friends had some, not very straight constellation.

 

03:18;23-03:22;26: Beo Morales: I went to the dentist and they told me how much it costs and I just couldn’t afford it.

 

03:22;28-03:31;28: Kil Yi: I was very insecure about my teeth, because I always thought that my teeth… kind of yellowish.

 

03:31;29-03:38;01: Hosetta Reid: I had a lot of dental work done. A lot of it and I’ve lost a lot of teeth.

 

03:38;03-03:47;10: Anette Baldauf: One dentist said that I should get bracelets. And I was like, why, what’s wrong with my teeth? And she said, well they’re like crooked.

 

03:47;13-03:56;00: Beo Morales: You know I can sense people’s reaction when they see my mouth. You know, here in the states, it is, it is kind of a bit of horror.

 

03:55;27-04:02;27: Anette Baldauf: And then there was a certain awkwardness, or, uhmm, a moment of hiding.

 

04:03;04-04:08;25: Kil Yi: I acquired this early habit of not showing my teeth, even when I’m laughing or smiling.

 

04:09;02-04:19;03: Hosetta Reid: I keep my lips tight. I try to pull my lips, and I don’t smile like that any more. I smile more, you know, little smiles.

 

04:19;04-04:23;01: Beo Morales: Basically, I’m having the rest of my teeth removed and I am going to get dentures.

 

04:23;07-04:35;05: Anette Baldauf: Once you notice it, you recognize it. You look at advertisements, you look at… all these corporate images, and its all about white teeth, big smile.

 

04:28;28-04:44;07: CORPORATE IMAGES ANIMATION

 

04:44;28-05:11;10: Karina Beznicki: My dentist thought that I would be much improved, I would look much younger if I had my teeth whitened. I think that he and others are responsible for raising the standard of what is considered acceptable as far as teeth are concerned. To a level that now we all have to, we all feel that we need to match this level of whiteness, level of cleanliness.

 

05:12;27-05:24;05: TEETH WHITENING ANIMATION

1999-2004: The teeth whitening market increased by over 300% in the last five years

 

05:24;06-05:37;04: Sharon Gullo: As I aged my teeth became more transparent. Even though I whitened them, they weren’t as white as I wanted. Because white teeth is a sign of health and of youth.

 

05:37;05-06:21;13: Dr William West: Cosmetic is anyone who, if you have a need for it. Like I said earlier, the young lady who came in yesterday, she had a front tooth that was chipped, and I was able to repair it. You know, she is of a low income class, but that’s cosmetic dentistry. As opposed to someone who has dark teeth, and they can have bleaching done, which is cosmetic, to lighten them. Or they can have porcelain laminates done, which are like false fingernails, and they’re bonded to the teeth. I did one, about ten of them on a lady, she was an older lady, but I had 10 of them. She just wanted her teeth looking fabulous, and looking lighter. You want to do it so that when you smile, your smile goes back to maybe the 2^nd pre-molar, bi-cuspid. So that’s ten teeth. So if they’re 800 and up, that’s at least 8,000 dollars.

 

06:21;13-06:28;22: TEETH COST ANIMATION

“A diamond is not as precious as a tooth.” Don Quixote

 

06:34;13-06:45;05: Dr George Bergofin: They tell you. They say, “You see these teeth, I don’t want them, I don’t like them. I haven’t liked them since I’m a kid, and now I can fix them; what can you do for me?”

 

06:45;18-07:03;21: Sharon Gullo: About 10 years ago my dentist recommended veneers. Initially, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like it, but I absolutely love my teeth and I find that I’m smiling more, I‘m more relaxed. I’m not conscious of covering up my teeth.

 

07:04;01-07:46;28: Markus Wailand: I used to present a show on TV, on arts and culture. And when I got the job, after all the castings and everything, I was quoted to the boss of the station, head of the station, and he tried to be very frankly, frank and open, and he addressed the teeth issue right away. So he would go like, “And about your teeth, so you think you should do something about it? Because you know, a lot of people are gonna recognize you, and they will all identify you by your tooth gap.” This was very telling I think about the way people in the tv industries think about perfect looks.

 

07:46;28-07:51;14: BACKGROUND NOISE: Montel Williams TV show

 

07:49;14-08:28;26: Dr William West: About 15 years ago someone called me, a young man, worked for the Montel Williams show, and proposed would you like to be part of the show and whatnot, and so I did. The guests that they schedule, first of all they’re real people with real problems – and if they come on and they have no teeth, missing teeth, or their teeth just don’t look right, they want them to look presentable so they send them, they call me and they send them to me. If they have missing teeth I make dentures for them in 2-3 hours; if they have cracked teeth I repair them. I try to make them as functionable as possible, so that when the guest leaves the show they can still use them. But a big part of it is aesthetics, it’s self-esteem.

 

08:29;25-08:41;15: Karina Beznicki: You know here if you look at who is on television, everybody had straight, white teeth. When you see someone with crooked, yellow teeth, it is an anomaly; it’s kind of shocking.

 

08:40;02-08:52;13: Markus Wailand: If you watch news on tv, or tv presenters, especially here is the US, I feel like I have to put shades on, because their teeth are like lamps.

 

08:52;20-09:36;14: Michael Moskowitz: It is relatively easy to see that that’s a false smile. So you wonder what is involved in showing this false smile. It certainly not true of other cultures, even Western European cultures, where showing the teeth is so important. You know you look at what is considered to be a perfectly fine set of teeth in England, and you see that people get along perfectly fine with teeth that many people in this culture would consider to be grossly defective. So you know we’ve developed this norm for showing the teeth that I think is in other ways an expression of class and power. So to show one’s good perfect white teeth, is to show that one has the money and the power necessary to maintain those good, perfect white teeth.

 

09:37;12-10:04;20: Sharon Gullo: I worked in Thailand in the Tsunami. And we identified people according to their dental records. They were tourists from Scandinavia, Australia, and they had exquisite dental work done – implants and veneers. And a lot of the Thai people had no teeth, because they were poor. And that’s unfortunately how we identified a lot of the Thai bodies versus a lot of the tourist bodies.

 

10:06;10-10:16;25: Dr George White: Everyone wants to look good. Everybody wants to watch their weight, everybody wants to smile, they want to have nice looking teeth. That’s what our society is all about.

 

10:17;20-10:41;13: KIKA-FREUD SECTION

A certain agreement however appears in the interpretation of the various forms of dreams, which have been designated as typical, because they reoccur in so many persons with almost the same content. Among these  are the well know dreams of falling from a height, of the dropping out of teeth, of flying, and of embarrassment because one is naked or scantily clad.

 

10:41;15-11:55;29: Michael Moskowitz: I think the important central organizing issue in psychoanalysis is that we learn the world through our bodies. As Freud said, the ego is primarily a body ego. Ego sounds very technical, but in German it’s das Ich, which means I, the self; whoever you are and feel you are. So from the beginning, things go in the mouth and the mouth is a way of knowing the world. I think teeth inherently have a conflicted or ambivalent meaning to people. Because they both provide power in the world, I mean with teeth you can knaw and chew and tear away and taste new foods. But they also come into your mouth with pain and discomfort; often terrible pain and discomfort. Freud often talked about teeth as representing the male genital, the phallus, the penis. For a child, their power is often located in their mouth and their teeth, and their ability to explore and also to inflict damage through their teeth. So that teeth are in a sense, from a phallic, Freudian perspective, represent a kind of proto penis. They feel like powerful implements to us. And the notion that they can be taken away feels like a loss of power.

 

11:56;25-12:07;20: Anette Baldauf: This was sort of a requisite for the functioning within the corporate world. That you had to have good teeth in order to give that wide smile, in order to get a job.

 

12:05;14-12:22;12: HOSPITALITY ANIMATION

“Your smile is your biggest asset.” Airline hostess training instructions

 

12:22;22-12:32;05: Karina Beznicki: This new phase of whitening on top of the straightening is just a whole new level of beautification and commodification.

 

12:40;08-12:45;22: Hosetta Reid: I would do the teeth whitening, if I had teeth. I only got four.

 

12:48;05-13:09;02: Kil Yi: I have this kind of half smile most of the times, and my friends and my colleagues think that, that I ‘m very difficult to fathom. Asians have been perceived as people who are capable of hiding their feelings, h hiding their discomfiture and anger behind their docile smile.

 

13:10;00-13:18;03: Markus Wailand: I think it is hard to be in a leadership position with very bad teeth – yellowish teeth, or gaps like this one.

 

13:18;13-13:19;15:BACKGROUND NOISE: computer sounds

 

13:18;19-13:50;03: Dr William West: They have dental finance companies, will supply funds for dental procedures. And this is of course someone who wants something done cosmetically. Sometimes it is a function, like someone has missing teeth and they want implants done. I’m doing a guy now, its like 20,000 dollars. It’s a good thing for the patient because they have more options now. If your teeth function better, then you can chew your food better, and you don’t have digestive problems. So it is more than just aesthetics and how you look and feel about yourself. It is a health issue also.

 

13:51;10-14:07;26: Nicholas Freudenberg: Health is a capacity that allows people to achieve their goals. And so people with poor health are less able to achieve their occupational, educational, professional goals. And teeth play a very important role because they are kind of a marker of social class.

 

14:11;09-14:36;02: Kil Yi: When I see a very bad teeth, I sometimes try to connect that to the person’s class background. I ask myself, why does he or she have such a bad set of teeth. If his or her class background is upper class or upper middle class, that should have been fixed. So my presumption is that something or someone was neglectful.

 

14:36;15-14:50;03: Beo Morales: When they took all my teeth out I think I had about ten left. What happens is, it just gets worse and worse, and then it gets more and more expensive. I just gave up. I said there is no way I am going to be able to afford this and keep my kids in food and diapers.

 

14:51;01-14:52;16: Beo Morales: Here’s my teeth (laughter)

 

14:55;23-14:59;07: BACKGROUND NOISE: Sounds of dentures going back into the mouth

 

15:00;17-15:02;18: Beo Morales: Yeah, its made a big difference being able to smile again.

 

15:05;02-15:13;16: NEED TEETH ANIMATION

We need our teeth to: Eat, Talk, Smile

 

15:13;22-15:43;25: Beo Morales: The unfortunate part is that eating will never be the same. What I’ve come to realize is, which you don’t really realize until you don’t have teeth, or you have something plastic covering your gums, is part of the sensation of eating is not just taste, but its  actually the sensualness of the food rubbing on your gums and getting in your teeth. It’s like using a condom, you know, ok, it’s still sex, but it’s not anything like, sex without a condom, you know… its just, you know…

 

15:46;09-16:02;05: Hosetta Reid: Psychologically I could not deal with having no teeth. I’m not a teenager, but it made me feel completely without any life. I just seem like I was 100, 200 years old.

 

16:02;06-16:12;25: NEON TOOTHBRUSH ANIMATION

16:13;22-16:36;22: Dr George Bergofin: So the patient says I want – and you show them a shade guide. And they’ll say, “this one, the white one.” The very white one. And we’ll say, “Where do you want the handle for the flush.” You don’t want it so white; it doesn’t look real. You want it to look like your teeth, like teeth.

 

16:40;29-16:58;23: Michael Moskowitz: There’s an interesting development in the Hip-hop culture these days, with the whole issue of grillz. Grillz are in some way, showing what used to be dental work, I mean with gold around one’s teeth. But, I think in some ways, they’re like, I don’t buy the typical white man’s attitude towards all white teeth. I’m going to have gold teeth.

 

GOLD TEETH SEGMENT:

 

17:04;16-17:06;03: Gold teeth shopper #1: That’s like some shit my brother has.

 

17:06;03-17:06;27: Gold teeth shopper #2: Yeah, how much for that?

 

17:07;10-17:09;02: Salesman: This, I’ll do 280.

 

17:09;22-17:10;08: Gold teeth shopper #2: Word

 

17:10;17-17:10;25: Salesman: Yeah

 

17:11;25-17:32;06: Rick: Got that grill. That’s what’s up, that’s the fashion right now, you know. We used to wear fronts back in the day, but now, get all our ice in there, that plain, plain, white gold baby, my man Mike, right here, hooked me up, you know what I am saying. That’s what it is. Got my daughter talking about she wants some and she’s six years old. But that’s what it is, that’s the style for now.

 

17:32;13-17:33;25: Gold teeth shopper #2: These (sound of tapping on jewelry case)

 

17:34;05-17:34;18: Salesman: This?

 

17:34;19-17:35;00: Gold teeth shopper #2: Yeah

 

17:35;16-17:37;14: Rick: Its all about that money and that ice, baby.

 

17:38;05-17:40;27: Salesman: For this I do 160, cos it is thicker.

 

17:42;16-17:43;24: Gold teeth shopper #2: 160 with the diamonds?

 

17:43;25-17:44;20: Salesman: No, without the diamonds.

 

17:45;07-18:03;12: Rick: You know, you’ve got some guys that go and put 50 carats of diamonds in their month. I think sometimes that’s ridiculous, how you got all that ice in your mouth. Its good to have a nice couple of fronts in your mouth and be fashionable, but when you go overboard and spend a hundred thousand dollars for some gold teeth, with ice in it, that’s crazy.

 

18:04;00-18:05;01: Gold teeth shopper #1: I want to see these.

 

18:06;00-18:06;18: Salesman: Which one, this?

 

18:06;25-18:08;19: Gold teeth shopper #1: Nah, this.

 

18:09;29-18:11;00: BACKGROUND NOISE: Sound of drawer opening

 

18:11;24-18:17;13: Salesman: With the diamonds or without? I could do exactly like that without diamonds for 140.

 

18:18;06-18:19;06: Gold teeth shopper #1: Make it look like this?

 

18:19;16-18:22;04: Salesman: Yeah, it would look just like this.

 

18:27;25-18:29;12: Gold teeth shopper #1: That shit ain’t shiny like this.

 

18:29;13-18:29;24: Salesman: Yeah

 

18:29;26-18:31;02: Gold teeth shopper #2: Cos that got diamonds in it

 

18:31;02-18:32;04: Salesman: That got diamonds in it, yeah.

 

18:33;00-18:35;21: Gold teeth shopper #1: Oh, and I could come back and put diamonds in my shit?

 

18:35;21-18:36;03: Salesman: Yeah

 

18:36;27-18:39;12: Gold teeth shopper #1: I could come back with ten dollars and put diamonds in my shit?

 

18:39;17-18:42;03: Salesman: No, you got to come with, each diamond is ten.

 

18:43;03-18:50;20: Gold teeth shopper #2: Like every little diamond is ten; every princess-cut is ten dollars, that’s what he’s saying. But he’ll do the cuts, diamond cuts for free.

 

18:49;28-18:50;20: Salesman: cuts is free.

 

18:51;10-15:52;20: Gold teeth shopper #2: And letters and all that free.

 

15:52;21-18:53;15: Salesman: Free. Yeah.

 

18:55;26-19:01;10: Gold teeth shopper #1: Oh… So, I’m gonna have to get rich.

 

19:03;04-19:17;17: Rick: Basically, grill is like, the original meaning is like, “Why he in my grill, starring in my face. But now when they say grill, the way the gold teeth look, with the diamonds on it, it looks like a grill, actually you could cook something on it.

 

19:17;17-19:18;01: Gold teeth shopper #1: How much?

 

19:18;16-19:21;14: Salesman: 140. What you want on yours big man?

 

19:21;14-19:22;24: Gold teeth shopper #2: I want, um…

 

19:26;05-19:46;24: Rick: The more chrome you got on that grill, the more balling you are, you know. The guys with the diamonds on their teeth, whoever got more carets, of diamonds, the more clarity, the best kind of diamonds in their mouth, signifies I got more money. So to the extent money, power, respect, the more ice in the mouth means more money, which means I got more power.

19:46;21-19:47;24: Salesman: Open up a little bit more.

 

19:50;16-19:52;08: Salesman: Relax and put your hands here and here.

 

20:05;03-20:06;10: Gold teeth shopper #2: That shit feels crazy.

 

20:20;26-20:59;10: Dr George White: Many patients when they come to us, they might be missing teeth, or want to have certain types of dental care, so that they can be in a social environment, so that they can interview for different types of employment. We also find people that psychologically was hindered because they couldn’t smile. But now we find that many of these patients, after being restored, you can see a change, in just how there self-esteem is for themselves. What we really try to do at this institution is make implant dentistry affordable to our patients.

 

21:01;28-21:39;11: Nicholas Freudenberg: There are a number of characteristics of poverty and stigmatization that contribute to poor teeth. One is diet, that poor people have less access to healthy food and are more likely to eat high sugar foods that contribute to dental problems. Second, they have less access to health care in general and dental health care in particular. And finally, education also contributes to improved dental health. And so many poor people don’t have access to adequate education, and so they can’t learn the skills and the knowledge needed to protect their teeth and to maintain dental health.

 

21:40;24-22:01;06: Dr William West: A root canal can cost 850 and up. And then you’re talking a post which is 450, and then a crown, which is 800 dollars and up. So when you ask someone who’s having problems paying their rent to spend 2000 dollars on a tooth, when they can spend 150 dollars and take it out, then the choice is easy for them.

 

22:03;02-22:26;11: Hosetta Reid: Well I still think it is a racial thing too. Cos a lot of blacks or, you know, any minority, cannot really afford that type of work. I mean, beautification, they just want to get the cavities filled or get a replaced tooth, by getting a partial or a denture. And that’s mainly what they can do, because dentistry is expensive.

 

22:26;19-22:44;17: ORAL HEALTH ANIMATION

“Those who suffer the worst oral health are found among the poor of all ages.”

Between  125-150 million Americans do not have dental insurance, more than three times the number of those without health insurance.

Surgeon General Oral Health Report

 

22:45;05-23:13;11: Nicholas Freudenberg: In this country we don’t have a comprehensive view of health and we don’t have a notion that health care is a right rather than a privilege that’s distributed by the market system. It’s an interesting disparity, because on the one hand, you have the media promoted image of a perfect smile, an image that only a few people can meet. And then on the other hand, you have vulnerable populations, children living in poverty, poor people, people coming out of jail and prison, who have terrible teeth.

 

23:14;16-23:36;19: Dr George White: When they initially thought of having health care being provided for, it was such an issue that they felt first things had to do with the body, and then the teeth just happened to follow. In the past, people lived with complete dentures. The whole mentality of prevention has evolved, so now the health care system has to catch up.

 

23:37;02-23:45;21: Nicholas Freudenberg: The first thing is to ensure that a larger proportion of our population have access to primary and preventive dental care.

 

23:45;08-24:02;29: DENTAL INSURANCE ANIMATION

Percentage of Persons with Private Dental Insurance with an Education Level of:

• less than 9 Years: 14.1%

• 9-11 Years: 24.3%

• 12 Years: 39.6%

• 13+ Years: 51.4%

Oral Health of America, A Report of the Surgeon General, 2000

 

24:03;25-24:15;29: Michael Moskowitz:

Capitalism and money play a role in all of this. There is a whole industry out there that profits from selling drugs, just as there is an industry out there that profits from making people feel like they need a certain kind of teeth.

 

24:15;19-24:25;05: DALE CARNEGIE ANIMATION

“Remember the shortest rule: Smile .“ Dale Carnegie

 

24:26;07-24:41;00: Michael Moskowitz: When you think about it, certainly in the industrialized world, most of us are richer than the kings of the Middle Ages, we have more things, our health is better, our lives are longer, we keep our teeth. Yet, we are often in a state of envy of those who have more.

 

24:42;09-25:20;20: Markus Wailand: It’s the standard of representations of beauty or happiness or wealth in those publications, on the screen, and in the mags. But of course it is not a standard among the real people. But the real people get influenced and get targeted by those images. So, its like being shot at. See here’s the white teeth and you can get it even whiter. I’ve just been talking about the way to heaven, the way to teeth heaven. But if you can’t afford, then you’re left with the feeling of the loser, of the outcast, of the left alone, and so you’re never going to make it. Because you can’t even open your month.

 

25:24;01-26:40: END CREDITS

 

END