CBSE CLASS 10 - English (C) - Literature - Oh, I wish I'd looked after my teeth. (Poem Summary) (#eduvictors) (#cbsenotes)

Oh, I wish I'd looked after my teeth.
                                     - Pam Ayres
SUMMARY

About the poetess
Pam Ayres was born on 14th March 1947 at Berkshire, England. She is an English poet, songwriter, comedian, radio and television presenter.

Summary

The poet regrets that she had neglected her teeth during her childhood days and also during her youth. When she was a little girl, she used to chew lots of toffees, took sweet sticky food, enjoyed gobstoppers, liquorice and sherbet dabs, without giving a thought that she may negatively affect her teeth. Little did she realise that her spending money on these pretty things might cause her teeth a major harm one day.

Not only did she indulge in bad eating habits, she additionally had a poor feeling of dental cleanliness that caused her a ton of shame and inconvenience amid her adulthood. She did brush her teeth at night  but the way she did it hurriedly and carelessly, it was more of a formality to brush the teeth that a push to keep up a decent oral cleanliness or hygiene.

Not even once did the reality dawn on her that her unhealthy food habits and her heedlessness towards her teeth were preparing for their rot and she would get herself one day in the dentist's chair facing all kinds of instruments odd instruments getting her cavities filled in, getting teeth capped, damaged teeth drilled and her gums injected to have a painless dental procedure. Had she realized that she thrown away all the sweets and sherbets that that had enticed her. 

She remembered, how she used to ridicule her mother's set of false teeth. Unfortunately she too has reached the stage when she would have to be satisfied with a denture. Helplessly she can just lament at her carelessness.