Smile: You Don't Own All the Problems in the World

Lift your head, baby, don’t be scared of the things that could go wrong along the way.

Sounds familiar? Yes, it is the first two lines from one of the most popular bands in PH back in the 90’s. Who would not want to love that song, especially when you are hanging out with friends with a guitar? Or would we sing with friends in Videoke?

Before I go further with my topic today let me first give you info and trivia about the band that immortalized the song, “With a smile.”

The Eraserheads

I have witnessed the rise and fall of the band but I will only give you little information about them. If you want to know more of their songs, the internet is wide enough to contain all of their music creation. The original members were Ely Buendia (lead vocals and guitar), Buddy Zabala (bass and drums), Marcus Adoro (lead guitar and vocals), Raimund Marasigan (drums).

The Eraserheads was the first and only Filipino artist to receive the Viewer’s Choice Award in 1997 MTV Video Music Award in New York City. The song Ang Huling El Bimbo (The Last El Bimbo) won the international viewer’s choice award.

Despite the band's success they also received criticism with the songs they wrote and played. The song Alapaap (High Clouds) was noted for promoting drug abuse because of the lyrics it contains. However the Eraserheads denied the assertion saying that it was just a misinterpretation. The song was about “ode to freedom” not the other way around.

With A Smile

The song With a Smile was released in 1994 by the Eraserheads and it is about a song of comfort. It is more of cheering up a person. I used to play this and sing it to my wife. The chords are just basic G, Am, Bm, Am-D.

Anyway, you might wonder what the song has to do with my topic today. Physically, what is the part of our face that we use to smile? Obviously, it is our lips and often showing our teeth. Yes, it is really the teeth that I want to share with you about.  I guess all of us here know what our teeth are for. Not just for chewing food but it gives us a beautiful smile.

Some people even if they don’t have teeth are able to show beautiful smiles on their faces. Those people have true hearts and are real people.

First and Second molar

Three years ago, I wanted to remove my molar tooth because of tooth decay. I don’t have a private dentist and I have never been to a dentist for teeth cleaning in my entire life. I just don’t fail to brush my teeth. But things are not always the same so one of my molar teeth needs to be removed.

I visited a local dentist but unfortunately the dentist did not dare to remove it. She advised me to have my teeth an X-ray because she was not sure about the condition of my wisdom tooth.

When I left the clinic, I visited the next clinic nearby. The dentist did not extract my molar tooth too but decided to repair it instead. After the process I still experience tooth ache the next day. It appears that my tooth was not properly repaired.

So I went to the dentist near the office, real dentist I should say. I just found out that aside from the decaying second molar, the first molar tooth was decaying too. The dentist then fixes what needs to be fixed in my teeth. She didn't want to extract it either, even if I wanted to.

It’s almost three years and my repaired molar teeth are still good, however I am experiencing a toothache again on that part. So, yesterday I went to another dentist to have it removed and the dentist did not hesitate to do my request. However the dentist had difficulty in extracting the third molar tooth because the root was attached to the bone. Her helper was holding my jaw while the dentist was pulling my tooth. In the end the dentist drilled the root just to finish the extraction.

Nevertheless I can still smile because I don’t own all the problems in the world.

 Thanks for reading. Ciao!

Lead image source credits to Vicky Hladynets

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