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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Entertainment
Christie D'Zurilla

Michael Strahan's signature tooth gap is gone — or so he says

If this is an early April Fool's Day joke, Michael Strahan, you're in big trouble.

The former NFL star and current "Good Morning America" host, known for the wide gap between his front teeth, posted video Tuesday on social media showing a dentist and his staff ostensibly working to eliminate his signature trait.

Keep in mind, this is the same guy who just last week was tweeting, "I rock my gap with pride! It's who I am!"

"If I go home and say I'm gonna do it, it'd be, 'Don't do it.' If I post, it'd be, 'Don't do it.' If I talk to my friends it'd be, 'Don't do it.' Talk to my business partner, 'Don't do it,'" Strahan says on camera in Tuesday's video.

There might be a message in all that, Mr. Strahan. Did that many people tell Sarah Jessica Parker "don't do it" when she was deciding whether to remove the trademark mole from her chin? Well, probably not, but she did tell a David Letterman intern in 2016 that she thought at first she'd made "a terrible mistake" after having it removed in 2006.

"Can they put it back on?" she joked. "But it was long to pathology by then."

Strahan told his dentist, Dr. Lee R. Gause of Smile Design Manhattan, "I gotta do what I want to do for myself, now. And you're the only one who knows. And you're the best at it, that's why I'm here."

In a separate video posted Wednesday by the dentist, the 49-year-old said he never really thought about having a gap until he was older.

"Years ago, I'm doing appearances and stuff like that, getting invited to do different events. I got invited to the Jacob Javits Center to be the featured guest at a dental convention. ... I had so many cards from dentists to fix my teeth. My pockets were full. ... I said no to everybody, but I trust this man," the TV host said, cracking up at the very idea of him being a dental-convention guest.

After advanced dental techniques such as "taking an impression," "blotting with gauze," "looking at teeth with a very bright light" and "time-lapse videography" are shown on the videos, Strahan emerges with a perfect, veneered smile.

So if Strahan really did get veneers, he seems super happy, so we're happy. Because more people in the world should be happy, really. But if he didn't and this is a prank? Grrr. It's over between us, sir.

Smile Design Manhattan, incidentally, is the outfit that gets credit for making $25,000 mouth guards for boxer Floyd Mayweather, according to TMZ. The custom guards included things like gold flakes, diamond dust and real $100 bills, the site said.

And Gause also installed a veneer with a diamond cross on it on one of NFL star Odell Beckham Jr.'s teeth before training camp in 2018. The cost: a reported $5,000.

Strahan's reps didn't reply Wednesday to a request for confirmation that the gap is really gone. Guess we'll know the truth come Thursday.

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