Part 2 continued from May 9, 2010...

Now, that sounds a little intense—after all, it’s just a smile, but that’s only because we take the smile seriously. It is, after all, our business. We are dentists, and passionate ones at that; the smile is our field of expertise, our chosen avocation, our life’s work. We think about it. We analyze it. We consider its personal, social, and ethical implications.

And we defend it. We defend the true smile against the fake smile. The fake smile is a fearful thing, roughly as warm as fluorescent lighting and about as believable as a politician. Faintly ominous, entirely unnatural, and more like a sensory assault than a show of confidence.

Needless to say, that’s not our thing.