I wasn't a kid that was lucky enough to be born with perfectly white or straight teeth. I had an overbite that was dangerously close to being buck toothed. I've always had a small gap between my two front teeth on the top. When I was a kid they looked like they were too big for my mouth. As I grew up, they eventually looked to be the right size. That gap became something I was known for.
This is me at age 10 on the right
I don't know that you can really see the gap between my front teeth because the picture is rather old and a bit blurry, but you get the idea that my teeth looked a little goofy back then.
I've always had problems with my teeth beyond just cosmetic issues. when I was 3 years old I got scarlet fever. I remember being sick and watching Sesame Street in the living room. My aunt was there babysitting me and my sister for some reason. I was eating crackers. They tell me I had a seizure, but I don't remember that. I only remember being shoved in a bathtub of cold water and I was not happy about it. I was taken to the hospital because I had a fever of 104 degrees. I can understand why that would be alarming to my Aunt. They gave me a medication to reduce my fever. It was some form of tetracycline. It turned my baby teeth to a dark yellowish-brown color. It made my teeth look as if I had been a smoker for 20 years. Later on when my secondary (adult) teeth came in, they came in looking like they had grey streaks in them. It was subtle, but my dentist noticed it and wanted me to get veneers when I was 18. It also apparently caused my tooth enamel to be more thin than it should have been. It basically means that my teeth came in weakened which is something that I was completely unaware of as I grew up. As I said, I didn't think about my teeth much while I was growing up.
My dentist recommended braces when I was 13 years old. My orthodontist put a dental appliance over the roof of my mouth. It was attached to the molars that were the furthest back. They call them 12 year old molars. It was just a metal bar that went across the roof of my mouth. It made it difficult for me to talk and made me drool when I first got it, which was kind of gross. I had a key that came with it. It was attached to a very long string. I never was able to say the word "cute" while I had that in. I had to turn the key every other night before I went to bed. It was supposed to widen my upper jaw to correct my overbite. I wore it for 6 months and then I got my braces on. They stayed on for 4 and a half years. That was over 4 years of wax because my braces would sometimes dig into my cheek. I had to wear small rubber bands over various parts in order to correct various areas of my teeth. I remember having to place a rubber band on the side near my canine teeth for some reason. Then there was a few months there where I had to put one in a square shape in the front of my mouth while I slept. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, my braces came off. I didn't have an overbite anymore and I no longer had a gap. I had my teeth professionally whitened to help correct the staining. Shortly after that, I began a career in modeling.
I was a model from the time I was 14 years old until I was around 21 years old. I spent a lot of time in the spotlight during my childhood. I performed in theater groups because my father really wanted me to have a career in acting. I competed in beauty pageants. Then, I modeled and eventually got a modeling contract. I opted to give all of that up to get married and have children. When I say opted, I mean to say that a month after I got engaged to my future husband, I found out I was pregnant with our son. I had to give up my modeling contract as a result. It's not anything that I was ever bitter about, it's just how things happened for me.
This is one of my last modeling photos taken when I was 21
I brushed my teeth like I was supposed to and went to the dentist's office once or twice a year to get my teeth cleaned. I didn't have many cavities; maybe 1. I had my wisdom teeth out between the ages of 21 - 24. I didn't have them all out at the same time and I was pregnant with my daughter so we had to wait until after she was born to finish the remaining wisdom teeth. They weren't impacted, but they also weren't coming through all the way so I had to have them pulled. The last one was removed when I was 24. I had my back teeth sealed twice to reduce the formation of cavities. I had my teeth scaled for the first time when I was 26. I was too busy running around after my children and let a year or 2 go by without making it to the dentist's office. It caused tarter to build up around my gum line, which made this necessary. I had contracted gingivitis and this was the treatment recommended. I was taught how to properly floss my teeth.
My husband decided to depart from the military and adjusting to civilian life was a larger adjustment than I originally realized. This clearly affected our dental insurance. The insurance we got from our civilian jobs was no where near as good as the insurance we had in the military. In spite of all of these dental visits and care that I put into my teeth, I bit into a jelly bean and one of my teeth crumbled. My teeth didn't look bad at all, but when the tooth crumbled it revealed heavy decay under the part that had been white. It seemed like they were decaying from the inside out. Although, now I can see that what was actually going on is that my gum disease had gotten worse because we couldn't afford the expensive treatments needed to reverse it. My teeth were forming cavities at the gum line, which allowed decay to spread through the inside of my teeth. Once that first one crumbled, the one on the other side of my mouth soon followed. I had to have both of my teeth extracted that were next to my front teeth at the top (I believe they are called lateral incisors). We tried to have as many of these treatments done, but I lost another tooth in the back about two years later. Then, one of my canine teeth broke off at the gum line. Now I have another of my canine teeth that has chipped to a point that is really close to the nerve. It's causing a lot of pain. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the glands under my jaw on either side are swollen.
The above image was taken a few weeks before my lateral incisors crumbled to illustrate how white and normal looking my teeth were just moments before they crumbled.
I went to a new dentist in January and he told me that the infection has spread into the socket of all of my teeth on the top. It's causing decay to develop there which is leading to bone loss. The teeth have already begun to get lose so it is now necessary for me to have them all removed on the top. I also have to have 6 of my bottom teeth in the front removed for the same reason. My 8 bottom molars are allowed to remain because they don't seem to be as effected as the rest of my teeth. The thing is that I went in to discuss only the possibility of removing my 4 canine teeth and getting partial dentures on the top and bottom to fill in the holes. So, jumping from discussing the extraction of 4 teeth to now discussing having 18 teeth extracted was a bit of a shock to me. However, the idea of having a healthy mouth and healthy looking white teeth was extremely attractive to me. Clearly my mouth is full of infection currently. Plus it is actually cheaper for me to have these teeth extracted. I will be able to have an immediate denture placed at the time of the extraction. I will have to wait a few months after the extraction to be fitted for my lower partial denture. Then, in six months I will be able to have a permanent denture made.
I have made all the necessary appointments required to get this process started. It looks like I have 3 weeks between today and the time my teeth are extracted. I will have to get impressions taken at my next appointment. So, this is where my blog is going to begin. I will try to present all of this information as it applies to my experience, but also include the information that I dig up along the way for anyone who may have to face becoming a denture wearer.
This is what I look like today. Notice I'm not smiling anymore. The previous picture is the last photo that was taken of me where I actually smiled. There is a 10 year difference between it and the above photo.
Note: I did type all of this up on February 4, 2015. I did not get around to posting it until February 27, 2015 and by this point the process has already been completed.
2:43 PM
0 comments:
Post a Comment