Teeth, braces, and the English Language or variations thereof.

[June Ewing]

No: HPFGUIDX 190374

Geoff:
> I worked for 32 years in a school in South-West London, dealing
initially with boys in the 11-15 range and latterly in a mixed
environment with students of 13-18 and that is how I would interpret
your suggestion from my experience of being bi-lingual, speaking
> both UK English and School Playground English.
>
> Going back to the original quote in GoF which June supplied, it
> was:
>
>> '(Hermione speaking) "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been
>> trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they
>> wanted me to carry on with my brace."'

> Lynda:
> Your point is well taken, Geoff and I would agree under most
circumstances. I do have one niggling question, though. Wouldn't
Hermione have mentioned that she wore a brace or the presence of a
brace on her teeth have been mentioned during the books if she was
wearing one? I don't think buck teeth like Hermione's would have
used merely a retainer she wore at night. So the presence of a
brace on her teeth would have been noticeable and should have been
mentioned. Rowling is not that poor a writer that she would leave
> out that detail!


June:
As someone who had the exact teeth that Hermione has been described
as having I can tell you that to straighten them takes more than
just throwing some steel on your teeth. I started the process of my
brace when I was 14 and didn't actually have braces on my teeth until
I was 15. First they have to take impressions of your teeth then
there are dental and orthadontal visits galore. In my case as is in
most cases they had to remove 4 teeth to make room. Also she is in
her fourth year so she is the same age I was when it all started so
it is likely that she is just going through the first stages in which
there is no brace yet but that would be the final outcome. They
don't like to put braces on too early either so it isn't likely that
at 11 and 12 she would have them yet so it makes sense that at that
age nothing was said in the books. It is also possible that someone
had actually asked J.K. Rowling about Hermione's teeth and she
decided she had better say some thing about them to show that her
parents who are dentists aren't just letting her run around with buck
teeth her whole life.