Growing up up, I I had a fairly straight smile with a small gap between my two front teeth. As a result, and to the relief of my parents’ wallets, I didn’t have to wear braces in elementary school like many of my peers.
Unfortunately, my severely impacted wisdom teeth wreaked havoc on the straightness of my smile years later – just as my dentist warned me they would. In college I had my wisdom teeth out and one a year ago I decided to start a teeth straightening journey with clear aligners to get back the smile it once was.
As I started this trip, I was skeptical. Not only was I afraid of wearing plastic retainers 24/7, but I was also worried that I would be pressured to close my gap – a feature of my smile that I really liked.
And so when it came time to get virtual molds of my mouth, I asked the orthodontist if I could keep the gap as is. He looked at me so strangely that I had to assume this was one of the first times he had received this request. smallo I explained to her the cultural significance of having “the gap” in Nigeria and other African nations.
In Yoruba, my parents’ mother tongue, tooth gap is lovingly referred to as “èjí”. It is considered as a symbol of beauty and wealthespecially for people who identify with women in many African cultures—so much so that some may undergo procedures to artificially create the desired interval.
“Some of the people I grew up with in Nigeria would even choose to treat the gap surgically, at the cost of chronic headaches,” says Amaka Uzoigwe, a doctor now living in New York. She points to you a small study from Nigeria which found that 34% of its participants had undergone cosmetic procedures to create artificial space.
After learning a little cultural context, my orthodontist strongly supported my decision to maintain my maxillary mid-space, or MMD — the medical term for a gap in the teeth. With a mini dental ruler, her assistant measured my 1mm gap, wrote “DO NOT SPACING” in all caps and sent those instructions to the clear aligner company. I automatically felt more comfortable at that point.
So, one might ask, how do NCDs appear? According Dr. Wunmi Oni, a pediatric dentist in Pennsylvania, the gap can be created due to dental conditions such as an oversized frenzy and habits such as thumb or tongue sucking. However, he points out that many intervals are not pathological. it is simply an inherited trait. A genetic trait that spans all bloodlines, MMD is common to them who today inhabit the African continent.
“My father [told] me that all members of our family appreciate their gaps and [that] it’s seen as a valuable feature,” he says Brenda Awuah, a resident of Nashville, Tennessee, and the daughter of immigrants from Ghana. “Every generation of my family has this trait.”
Although MMD may be in demand for many people in African countries, it is often looked down upon in Western nations. The authors of a paper in a scientific journal report that the midmaxillary space “represents an aesthetic and psychological detriment and distress for patients seeking orthodontic treatment.” In other words, it is a natural defect that needs to be corrected.
Many blacks who grew up in western countries unfortunately faced ridicule for their emptiness, since the characteristic is in contrast to deeply Eurocentric standards of beauty. I have to acknowledge my own “vacuum privilege” that exempts me from excessive ridicule about my MMD. it was probably because my gap is pretty small, still sitting at 1mm. I know that several of my peers with more severe gaps face a lot of negativity — I’ve spoken to several of them.
Mariama Ibrahim, a resident of Durham, North Carolina, who is the daughter of Nigerian and Panamanian immigrants, was bullied because she had a gap. She often heard comments like “you look like a train is going through your mouth” and “are you missing a tooth?”
Ikeoluwapo Ibrahim, who lives in Connecticut and is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, often received “beaver” and “dumb” comments about her smile.
“If you flip through any photos from before high school, you’ll notice that I rarely smiled with teeth showing,” says Ophelia Okoh, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants who lives in Philadelphia. Her gap, she tells me, has been the target of many jokes.
I vividly remember watching one episode of “America’s Next Top Model” where contestant Danielle “Dani” Evans was mocked by the judges and told that she would never win a CoverGirl modeling contract as long as she kept the gap in her teeth. Despite these comments, Evans decided not to close it completely and opted for a partial closure. He won the sixth season of the series. To this day, though, I wonder if he still would have won if he hadn’t assimilated by meeting them halfway.
Okoh says she used to “dream of the day when [she] could afford braces or Invisalign” to close her gap due to the incessant bullying. However, following Evans’ decision on “ANTM,” he says, questioned her intentions to close her gap. This small moment of representation mattered.
Kenny Agoro, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants living in Ohio, had a similar experience. She tells me that Evans’ decision had a significant impact on her at a critical time when she was ashamed to come clean.
Beverly Aiyanyor, a Philadelphia resident who is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, tells me she initially wanted to close her gap, but eventually changed her mind. “As I saw other celebrities and influencers hugging theirs, it further encouraged me to hug [my gap] and not allowing social pressures to make me feel like I have to shut it down,” she says.
When it comes to the politics of the smile, it’s important to recognize how much whiteness can influence our perceptions of what an “acceptable” smile actually looks like. Dentists and other healthcare professionals need to be aware of the cultural significance of the gap, allowing it to inform their approach to patient care. Oni says that because the majority of spaces do not affect oral health, she gives her patients complete autonomy in their decision to keep or close their space for cosmetic reasons.
I am grateful that my orthodontic team supported my choice, especially since the vacuum hug may have been completely unfamiliar to them. I learned that one of the dental assistants had several phone calls with the clear aligner company to make sure they designed the aligners to maintain my space. This is what a real advocate looks like.
Whether one chooses to keep their gap or not, it is important for dental professionals — and the rest of the Western world — to constantly redefine and push the boundaries of what a beautiful smile looks like.
“Nature has a reason why I was gifted with a mid-maxillary gap,” says Agnes Amihere, who currently resides in Ghana, reflecting on her experience living with a gap in her teeth. “I don’t know why I was among the chosen ones. I am proud and grateful as it makes my smile uniquely handcrafted and characteristic of creation.”
