Sir, – With some effort I can ignore the intrusively early Christmas paraphernalia for sale in many shops and concentrate on Halloween supplies. I notice the default position that vampires have unusually long canine teeth, but this is at odds with some of the most popular vampire depictions, such as the Cullen family in the Twilight movies and Bela Lugosi who was the archetypal Dracula for a generation.
Going back to Bram Stoker’s novel as source material, Stoker describes Dracula’s smile initially as “charming” and “quiet”, deteriorating to “grim”, “malignant and saturnine”, “diabolical”, “evil” and worse. This smile contains eyeteeth that are indeed “sharp”, “long and pointed” lying over the lower lip; while generally his teeth, although “white as ivory” were “protuberant” and “protruded over his lips”.
While it is generally considered unprofessional for dentists to comment on the dentition of public figures, and unwise to diagnose without clinical examination, it does sound like Stoker was describing either over-erupted canine teeth out of line with the rest of the upper dental arch, or an entire upper dental arch projecting beyond the lower lip.
In terms of the Dental Health Component of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need, the latter would score 5a, making Dracula eligible for treatment by the HSE as long as he could convincingly take the form of a child under 16. The former condition would be a 4d, and unlikely to qualify unless it constitutes 8-10 on the Aesthetic Component.
RM Block
I don’t expect Stoker was calibrated to make that assessment, but in fairness “a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of” sounds like an 11 on a 1-10 scale.
I’m not sure what the current waiting list in Dracula’s area is, but it’s probably a good job that he’s immortal. – Yours, etc,
Stephen D Murray,
Swords,
Fingal,
Dublin.
