My parents gave me everything I wanted, everything besides braces. Ever since I was young, I had noticed my teeth growing in a less than desirable fashion, and aspired to one day fix them. My dad said that I was beautiful the way I was, and crooked teeth gave me character. But now at the age of 25, I don’t think I will ever be completely comfortable with myself until I fix my smile. I am tired of hiding my teeth when I smile. I’m tired of the funny face I make it when I take a photo. I just want to feel free to be myself without holding bad all of the time.
People may think that a perfect smile is not important. Considering the “more important” things in life, I am grateful for what I have. I am healthy and smart and come from a great family. To even be alive I am lucky. I read a book by Bill Bryson called “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, and it makes a very strong point about how you should be happy with what you have.
“Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth’s mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstance to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stuck fast, untimely wounded or otherwise deflected from its life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result – eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly – in you”
Unfortunately for me, that hereditary combination includes big teeth and small jaws.
However, there is more to my story. As a child, people may say I was on the clumsy side. Or maybe just unfortunate. Things just seemed to always hit me in the face, including the concrete driveway. When I was in grade 3, so maybe around 8 or 9 years old, I had an accident. I remember that day so vividly…
I was wearing my favourite dress. It was white and the skirt part was had black and white stripes. On the top part there was a picture of a boat with the sails and all that jazz. I loved that dress. It was a nice sunny day and I was playing outside with my sister and brother. My dad was in the garden doing something with these small tiny rocks that somehow got scattered over the concrete driveway.
I was on my sister’s skateboard. It was one of those big types. Well from what I remember it was big. Things seem to be bigger when you’re younger. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were painted on the top and bottom of the skateboard, and it had orange wheels. I was on my knees skating up and down the driveway and skidded. It happened so fast I didn’t even block my head. I fell face forward on the pavement and skidded down. And my two front teeth broke in half.
That wasn’t the only time I broke my teeth. Fast forward to two years later, I broke them again. This time I got excited because we were going to Yellow Spot, a local chicken and chips place. I ran out the front door and fell down the step. Again, I didn’t block my face. The dentist once again patched them up with bonding material. They were not shaped that well, and he made them bigger and said I was “grow into them”.
Fast forward to the present day, I have “Bugs Bunny teeth”, which I absolutely hate! The second time around I damaged the root of the right hand side (my left). And last year I developed a huge abscess due to an infection. The tooth was dead due to the damage to the root. The root tip pretty much broke off, and is still embedded in my jaw. Due to the dead tooth I could not feel a tooth ache, and had no tell tale signs of an infection. Once I accidently found the abscess I knew there was something wrong. I went to the dentist and was referred to an endodontist. Two thousand dollars later, I had the root canal fixed, but with no guarantee it will last. I plan to get an implant if the tooth fails.
During my root canal journey, I finally started to seriously consider getting braces. I never knew which to do first: put crowns on my two front teeth, straighten them, pull them out and get implants… it was all so overwhelming I put it all off due to not knowing what to do and the cost.
When I was considering pulling out my tooth and getting an implant, I was told it could not be done because of the state of my mouth. My teeth are healthy with no decay, but the crowding was so much it would cause more problems. I was referred to an orthodontist to start the whole process of straightening my teeth and fixing my bite. I was also told a root canal was needed.
In August of last year, I met with the orthodontist who added to my woes. I was told I would need orthognthatic surgery to fix my jaw problems. I have a severe overbite, lip incompetence, and a gummy smile. In other words, “Long Face Syndrome”. I always knew I had a long face, and always noticed I couldn’t really close my lips without straining. He said he would straighten my teeth, but would not help with my jaw pain or my profile. He said I would not have good results in the end if I chose the non-surgical route.
Since my first consultation, I have had my x-rays done, my moulds, extractions, and met with my surgeon. All this has taken about 6 months… such a long and annoying waiting time!
And on March 11th on this year, I finally have my braces on. Well half of them. He could only put the upper braces for now, and needs to make room for the lowers to be put on in a few months.
