“All skin teeth is not grin.” I al­ways heard my grand­moth­er say this. Grew up hear­ing and us­ing this say­ing. Have even coun­selled my chil­dren us­ing it. It guides our con­ver­sa­tion this week.

We have a way of con­dens­ing wis­dom in­to short, sharp say­ings that car­ry cen­turies of ob­ser­va­tion about hu­man na­ture. One such proverb is “All skin teeth is not grin.” On the sur­face, it is sim­ple: not every­one who smiles with you tru­ly has your best in­ter­est at heart. Be­hind the smile could be en­vy, mal­ice, or care­ful­ly dis­guised be­tray­al. It is a warn­ing we would do well to re­mem­ber, not on­ly in our per­son­al lives, but al­so in pol­i­tics, cor­po­rate board­rooms, pub­lic ser­vice, fam­i­lies, mar­riages, and busi­ness part­ner­ships.

The say­ing is root­ed in a cul­tur­al recog­ni­tion that ap­pear­ances can de­ceive. The act of “skin­ning teeth,” flash­ing a smile, may be noth­ing more than a mask. The re­al test lies not in what is shown out­ward­ly but in the mo­tives and char­ac­ter of the in­di­vid­ual. Let us ex­plore how this time­less cau­tion ap­plies across the spheres of life.

Nowhere is this proverb more ap­plic­a­ble than in pol­i­tics. Cam­paign sea­sons in Trinidad and To­ba­go are full of hand­shakes, hugs, and bright smiles. Politi­cians knock on doors, kiss ba­bies, and promise the moon and stars. But not every smile is gen­uine. His­to­ry, both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, shows that the ones who beam in pub­lic may har­bour pri­vate agen­das. Po­lit­i­cal al­liances are al­so no­to­ri­ous for the “skin teeth” syn­drome, lead­ers pub­licly em­brac­ing while qui­et­ly plot­ting to un­seat one an­oth­er.

For the or­di­nary cit­i­zen, this means ex­er­cis­ing dis­cern­ment. A politi­cian’s charm should nev­er be mis­tak­en for sin­cer­i­ty. Poli­cies, track records, and in­tegri­ty mat­ter far more than pub­lic dis­plays of friend­li­ness. Many so­ci­eties have paid the price of trust­ing smiles over sub­stance.

The cor­po­rate world is al­so full of “skin teeth” mo­ments. In board­rooms, smiles of­ten mask am­bi­tion and ri­val­ry. A col­league may laugh with you dur­ing cof­fee breaks but se­cret­ly un­der­mine your projects, hop­ing you stum­ble so they can rise. Ex­ec­u­tives may grin while sign­ing off on merg­ers, all the while con­ceal­ing the lay­offs and up­heavals they know are com­ing.

Cor­po­rate cul­tures that re­ly sole­ly on sur­face-lev­el ca­ma­raderie with­out cul­ti­vat­ing gen­uine trust can be­come breed­ing grounds for hypocrisy. For the pro­fes­sion­al, the les­son is clear; re­spect the smile, but ver­i­fy the in­tent. Build net­works based on proven loy­al­ty, not su­per­fi­cial charm.

In pub­lic ser­vice, the say­ing rings true in sub­tler but equal­ly dan­ger­ous ways. Civ­il ser­vants, lead­ers, and man­agers may wear po­lite ex­pres­sions dur­ing meet­ings, yet se­cret­ly re­sist poli­cies, block progress, or stall re­forms. Some­times, en­tire de­part­ments are plagued by in­di­vid­u­als who smile in agree­ment but work in op­po­si­tion once the doors close.

This re­al­i­ty slows de­vel­op­ment and un­der­mines gov­er­nance. Lead­ers in pub­lic ser­vice must there­fore learn to dis­cern sin­cer­i­ty from po­lite­ness. A nod and a smile do not al­ways trans­late in­to com­mit­ment. Ac­count­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms are vi­tal to sep­a­rate the gen­uine ser­vant from the smil­ing pre­tender.

Per­haps the most painful ex­pres­sions of “all skin teeth is not grin” are found in fam­i­lies and mar­riages. Smiles can mask deep frac­tures, re­sent­ment, in­fi­deli­ty, en­vy, or ri­val­ry. A spouse may laugh at a din­ner ta­ble while har­bour­ing se­crets that will one day shat­ter trust. Rel­a­tives may at­tend fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, smil­ing broad­ly, while plot­ting over in­her­i­tance or whis­per­ing about one an­oth­er be­hind closed doors.

It is here that the proverb de­mands the most cau­tion, be­cause be­tray­al from those clos­est to us cuts the deep­est. Fam­i­lies and mar­riages re­quire trans­paren­cy, truth, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, not just po­lite smiles. A smile with­out sub­stance is a dan­ger­ous thing in the home.

In the world of en­tre­pre­neur­ship, part­ner­ships of­ten be­gin with ex­cite­ment and smiles. But his­to­ry is filled with sto­ries of busi­ness­es torn apart be­cause one part­ner was smil­ing in the oth­er’s face while prepar­ing to steal ideas, ex­ploit re­sources, or cut the oth­er out of prof­its.

This is why wise busi­ness­peo­ple in­sist on con­tracts, le­gal struc­tures, and ac­count­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms, even with friends or fam­i­ly. Trust is es­sen­tial, but blind trust in a smile can be ru­inous. As the say­ing re­minds us: skin teeth is not al­ways grin.

What, then, is the wis­dom this proverb leaves us with? It is a call to dis­cern­ment. Smiles are easy to give, but char­ac­ter is hard­er to coun­ter­feit over time. The proverb warns us not to be naïve. It does not mean we should live in con­stant sus­pi­cion, dis­trust­ing every kind ges­ture. Rather, it teach­es bal­ance, to ap­pre­ci­ate friend­li­ness, but do not be fooled by it. Test sin­cer­i­ty through ac­tion, con­sis­ten­cy, and in­tegri­ty.

For lead­ers, pro­fes­sion­als, and fam­i­lies alike, the les­son is in­valu­able. Judge peo­ple by pat­terns, not mo­ments. Look be­yond the face to the fruit of their words and ac­tions. Guard your­self from be­tray­al by an­chor­ing re­la­tion­ships in trust built on ev­i­dence, not mere ap­pear­ances.

“All skin teeth is not grin” is more than an old Trin­bag­on­ian say­ing. It is a sur­vival strat­e­gy, a piece of cul­tur­al wis­dom that re­mains strik­ing­ly rel­e­vant in a world where masks are every­where, on po­lit­i­cal plat­forms, in cor­po­rate of­fices, at fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, and in mar­riage vows.

We live in an age of pol­ished ap­pear­ances, so­cial me­dia smiles, and cu­rat­ed per­son­al­i­ties. This makes the proverb all the more ur­gent. Let us smile, yes, but let us al­so watch care­ful­ly. Be­cause while smiles can light up a room, they can al­so con­ceal the dark­est in­ten­tions.

In every area of life, we must re­mem­ber; not every flash of teeth is a sign of true joy or good­will. Some­times, it is just a mask. If we fail to recog­nise that, we risk mis­tak­ing be­tray­al for friend­ship, and de­cep­tion for love.