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1) I am happy to be from England like you, I hope, are happy to be from where you are. Milk it for all it's worth, if it's funny I will laugh. The English are wellknown for being able to laugh at themselves.
2) Thank you for the dentistry meaning, it wasn't in my particular Oxford English Dictionary apart from the generalised 'something which retains' so is probably an Americanism.
3) Should I have shouted any of that?
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Ah, just realised that Racer was probably referring to the dental hygiene/the English thing. This has always confused me since starting to read these forums when so many US citizens seem to think that the English have bad dental hygiene and like to make jokes about it. Where did this idea come from? As you might know we do have a National Health Service over here and that does include dentistry. It means that everyone gets free or heavily subsidised treatment and dental visits are very regular, usually at least every 6 months. This also means that most people take advantage of this and teeth and general dental health is actually quite good. Case in point, my wife had a sharp pain while eating an Easter egg the other day, rang the dentist, saw them that day and had a quick replacement of a 20 year old filling which had come slightly loose. Job done.
Our local practice has had a dentist from New York on temporary contract for a year or so now and a few months ago I put the points to him. His response was that before he came to the UK he also thought our dental hygiene was not good due to US media and comedy but since arriving he realises that this was very wrong. He said he saw far worse dental hygiene in his US practice as so many people put it off until it was totally necessary due to the prohibitive costs. My thought that dental insurance surely covered this illicited the reply that many people either don't bother or cannot afford it.
What he did say though was that we are not nearly so obsessive about the cosmetic side of dentistry. I, as a 54 year old, do not have perfectly straight teeth and the colour although not bad is not pearly white. This does not bother me particularly as my dental history shows that I have only had one filling and that was due to a chipped tooth after a childhood fall. He suggested that people from the US had seen the 'English' teeth and equated less than bright white and not perfectly straight with bad hygiene which he knew from experience now was not the case.
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This thread is SO FUNNY.
I mean a BRIT not knowing something about common DENTISTRY???
That's what I call playing directly into one of the oldest stereotypes in the land.
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'The British Book of Smiles'
I still use that tome to scare kids into good dental hygiene.
VooDooPengi Quote.:
"Our local practice has had a dentist from New York on temporary contract for a year or so"
If the Brits have such good dental industry, why are you importing Doctors from the States?
VooDoo, I receive BBCAmerica, when some of those folks smile, it scares me!
BGNR
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short answer is yes.
microchip13 Wrote:
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> Still. Very cool.
>
> Though I'd still need stuff to put on 750GB.
>
>
> OWC Larry, if you havn't already are you guys
> gonna pick up the Miglia MicroTV?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> It's a Retainer.
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Voodoo, it's my understanding that historically, British teeth were terrible due to regular consumption of sweet tea.
Your notion that it's probably the cosmetic aspect is probably correct. We Yanks are so hung up on appearances. And it could still be attributed to the tea, if only cosmetically rather than from a decay standpoint.
And your dentist is correct about the effect of the high costs of dentistry here in the States. Been there myself.
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Sorry, never noticed the words underneath. Guess it's kind of like having to explain a joke.
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neither did I the first time I saw it.
