metal. The process of bringing these teeth together was a long and costly one, totalling between six hundred and two thousand dollars, depending on the reluctance with which the parted teeth met, and the financial standing of the teeths’ progenitors. Peter’s dental process was not to begin for another year. Eight was considered the age. It seemed to be as common as vaccination.

From Hannah: “I don’t know what’s the matter with children’s teeth nowadays. My children’s teeth never had to have all this contraption on them. You got your teeth and that was the end of it.”

“Perhaps if they’d paid proper attention to them,” Marcia would reply, “there wouldn’t be so many people going about with disfigured jaws now.”