DON'T BRIDGE THAT GAP

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 8, 1993                   TAG: 9301080323
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Almena Hughes
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
DON'T BRIDGE THAT GAP
At one time a large space between a person's front teeth was called a "devils' door" because it was thought to be where demons could enter the soul. Various cultures have regarded the gap as a mark of beauty or of low breeding, the sign of a silver or a lying tongue.
Dentists who routinely close the much-debated spaces can probably attest to the gaps' legendary ability to bring riches. They won't, however, be biting into any wallets among the Spokane, Wash.-based International Diastema Club, whose members vow, among other things, to not seek orthodontic correction.
The club started about 12 years ago on a whim, said president Dale Hempel, who hopes to raise his diastematic peers' self-esteem and help dispel the myths about them, such as they whistle, sing or spit better than their gapless counterparts.
One can become a card-carrying participant in the nearly 700-member club for $5, certification of at least a two-millimeter space and solemn vows to eliminate all thought of braces, to smile proudly, to never clean all the kernels off a corn cob and to enter all spitting contests.
And perhaps one day you can attend its first convention - probably in Union Gap, Wash.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB