Funky teeth kids

Before I came to Korea, I was well acquainted with the "bad teeth" stereotype we perceive some foreigners as being. In Japan, funky teeth aren't really that big a deal; you can sometimes still see models without perfect teeth and it doesn't seem to hold them back.

What surprised me about Korea is that so many kids have REALLY neglected teeth. They don't have jaggedy-edged teeth or vampire teeth -- that's a genetic thing you can't really do anything about, and I wouldn't be put off by it anyway (heck, I had vampire teeth before I was 16).

Many of my students have teeth that are starting to go black around the edges. What causes it? My only guess is that parents don't have their kids brush.

As an American, this baffles me. My parents made me brush, they said, because they felt it's a good habit to get into before I got my permanent teeth. In my opinion, I think they just said because they were providing logical justification for a cultural norm, but nonetheless I think it was a good idea.

The only reason I can come up with as to why Korean parents don't make their kids brush is that it's just not worth it. Why push your kids to brush teeth that are only going to fall out within a couple years anyway? It's nasty, but my hypothetical reason does have its merits. It saves a lot of frustration on the parents part, and you've still got plenty of time to drill the brushing habit into the kid anyway.

Unfortunately, the ones who lose in this non-brushing rationale are the students' foreigner teachers. Whenever those blackened stumps bare themselves in a horrifying juvenile grin, one can't help but pause and stare at the rotting carnage one knows had been true, pearly whites. It's like driving by a ten-car pile up on the freeway and wondering, "Oh my G--! What hap-- Eeeewww!"

I can say this, though -- no matter how much of a pain it will be to make my kids brush, it's definitely going to happen.