I’ve got this smile. It’s made up of several components that are not just part of my mouth. Of course, the main parts are my teeth, my gums, and my lips. But my eyes and cheeks and wrinkles are part of it too. Bringing these all together is what makes my smile complete. This story, though, is about my teeth and how they came to be the way they are now. They have gone through some changes over the years, some natural and others at the hands of dental professionals.
Circa Late 1978-Location: My Mother’s Uterus
Inside the womb, I had no use for my teeth. In fact, all 20 of them were hidden, well-protected inside of my gums, not yet ready to make an appearance. At the time, I was fed through my belly button and there were no things to smile about. It was cramped, all I could see was darkness, and I’m pretty sure people were talking about me right in front of my face.
Circa Early 1980-Location: Mostly Orange Ave. Tavares, Florida
By this time, a few of my teeth were making an appearance. I had been smiling for most of my life, but the emergence of my lower central incisors made my smile all the more adorable. Of course, I had to go through a bit of discomfort to get to this point, but as the saying goes ‘Beauty is pain.’
Circa Late 1981-Location: Mostly Disston Ave. Tavares, Florida
At this point, my toothy grin was in full swing. My pearly whites were paving the way for my success entertaining company from the living room floor. These chompers allowed me to do what man is meant to do, eat donuts…among other things.
Fast Forward Ten Years or So
Nature had helped me replace all of the teeth that had gotten me to where I was and even added a few more to help with the donut consumption. There was a problem though. For whatever reason, my teeth were not in the positions that the dentist and orthodontist believed they should be. They recommended braces be installed. This was several years prior to the introduction of Invisalign to the marketplace.
I am grateful that my parents cared and spent money to have my teeth positioning corrected. And I was grateful that my orthodontist allowed me to customize my braces with garnet and gold rubber bands, showing my support for the Florida State Seminoles football team. My Gator-fan dentist was not appreciative.
Visits to the orthodontist’s office always ended with a few minutes of gameplay in the free arcade room they had on-site. I gravitated to the game Ecco the Dolphin. I remember being utterly confused by the game. Apparently aliens had come and taken away the dolphin’s pod, but I missed that point. I must not have made it past the first or second level.
I was careless when it came to following the guidelines set by my orthodontist. I chewed gum. I ate popcorn and chips. I rode on the trunk of a car and fell off, hitting my braces on the asphalt. How did I avoid hitting my nose first? I don’t know, but that feat appears again in this story. I was also given a lovely accessory called headgear that I was supposed to wear at night. This medieval contraption attached to my braces with pins and was secured around my head with a strap. Sleeping with this on proved challenging so I chose to forego wearing it most nights.
During the course of adjustment by braces, the orthodontist determined that two of my adult teeth were coming in at a strange angle and would need to be guided in by the braces. The issue was that in order to get to the teeth, the dentist would need to provide access for the orthodontist. This access was provided by the dentist burning two holes in the roof of my mouth, exposing the teeth. I’ll spare you the details of the sensation and the smell. Once that was done, the orthodontist attached brackets and wires and pulled those teeth slowly down into the appropriate location.
Regardless of my poor care, I graduated from the program and my braces were removed. I was assigned a retainer to wear as a guard against my teeth making shifts against the costly correction. I am sure you are familiar with the retainer, a mix of stainless steel and pink palate shaped plastic covered with saliva. Most of the time, mine was in the bacteria incubating plastic case instead of in my mouth. If I had chosen to do as instructed, and wear the retainer when not eating or when sleeping, my lower teeth would likely still be straight. Hindsight is 20/20.
One day, shortly after having my braces removed, I was playing basketball in the Cox Arena (that’s what I called the concrete pad with four basketball goals in our back yard). If I remember correctly, I jumped up to rebound the ball and somehow ended up falling to the ground and hitting the concrete with my two front teeth. Again, avoiding my nose.
I realized that something was wrong when I stood up and looked at the girl who I was playing against. She looked at me and said, “What happened to your teeth?” I placed my tongue on my teeth and found two sharp points. My two front teeth had broken from the top centers to the lower outer corners, leaving a triangle-shaped gap. I remember covering my mouth and looking down at the concrete to see if I could find the missing pieces, but it ended up being of no consequence.
Those teeth were of no use to me after that. The dentist needed to perform a root canal on both teeth. I laid back in the chair, well aware of what was happening as the dentist drilled into my teeth all the way up so that he could reach the nerves. My dad squeezed my foot to comfort me and it helped. The dentist showed me the roots, assuming that I would be interested in seeing them. I was not.
He gave me temporary caps and said that when I turned 18 he would replace the caps with permanent crowns. The biggest issue with the caps was that they were slightly translucent and as the years went by, the broken teeth under them began to rot (I suppose) and show through. Fortunately, I’m a fairly confident person or this might have caused a large issue with my self-esteem.
For people who knew me and the story, my see-through teeth were no big deal. But, I do remember one time when some kid I didn’t know started making fun of my teeth. I explained to him that they were fake and he said, “Just because they’re fake doesn’t mean you don’t have to brush them.” That got a good laugh from the goons around him and no explaining from me helped them to understand the situation.
Circa August 2001-Four Years Out of High School-Heading to College
My parents are wonderful people and they were then too. Before I left for college at 22 years old, they bought me new glasses and two new front teeth. I now had some permanent crowns. No more visible dirty triangle teeth. Aside from having to get used to walking with corrected vision, I was an improved man.
Circa May 2016-Location: Back Room Steak House, Apopka, Florida
Fifteen years had passed and I had used my smile a lot. Most importantly, I had used it to attract my beautiful wife during college.
One particular evening we were celebrating a real estate closing of some significance. We were sitting in the steakhouse during a rare date night out. We had ordered our meals and were about to partake in a delicious appetizer. We thanked God for our food and our time together then began eating.
I took a bite from a fried green tomato and immediately knew something was amiss. I sealed my lips and placed my hand over my mouth. I felt my front teeth with my tongue. I looked at Kayla and with my hand still over my mouth I said, “I think my tooth just fell off.”
Kayla laughed. She was probably in shock. She said, “Are you serious?” I assured her I was and she asked me what I was going to do about it. All I knew to do was to go to the bathroom and investigate.
Behind the locked door, I stood in front of the mirror and smiled, revealing my teeth. The front half of my left permanent crown had broken off from the rest of the crown revealing the old tooth that had died underneath. I was mortified because I didn’t know what to do. With the piece of the crown between my fingers, I pressed it in place and it stuck. I smiled and felt around with my tongue for any out of place juts or jagged edges. Feeling like it was securely in place, I returned to the table.
I filled Kayla in on the situation and on what I believe happened. Our steaks arrived and fortunately they were good quality and easy to eat. I focused all my chewing on the sides of my mouth avoiding contact with my front teeth at all costs.
We happened to be eating out on Friday night of Memorial Day weekend. Very rarely are dentists open on weekends or on Memorial Day. Understanding this, we picked up some Dentek Temparin Max in the hopes that it would hold my tooth together until I could get in to see a dentist. It’s only supposed to work for 48 hours. I had at least 72 hours before I could see a dentist.
I wanted to find a dentist who did same day crowns because I didn’t want to have to deal with a broken tooth for an extended period. I was a Realtor at the time and was meeting with people nearly every day. I found a dentist in nearby Clermont who advertised same-day crowns and I placed a call to make an appointment for their next open slot. Which I believe was set for the following Tuesday, but I don’t recall for sure.
At the appointment, the dentist determined that they could not do a same-day crown because of the shape of my broken tooth. At this point, I probably should have discontinued the appointment and made an appointment at my regular dentist. But I was already in the chair. He explained to me all that had to be done which including inserting some sort of fiber rod through the old tooth and into my gum, securing it with cement. “Do whatever you have to do” is probably what I said.
We decided to replace both crowns because apparently some “permanent” crowns are only so for 15 years. At the first appointment, they removed the old crowns. I also had the benefit of having an impression mold made. This is the experience in which they place a metal tray filled with three gallons of modeling clay into your mouth and tell you to relax for sixty seconds. I suppose it’s easy for some people to relax like this and breathe through their nose for a full minute without gagging, but it’s not for me.
They installed some temporary caps and sent me on my way to return in one week to have the crowns installed. I was concerned that the caps would fall off during a meeting, but they stayed in place.
I returned to the dentist’s office for my appointment, ready to be done with the whole process. Pleasantries were exchanged. Blue gloves were donned. Crowns were installed. The dentist’s face showed concern. The crowns were the wrong shape. They were the wrong color and were too bulbous on the fronts and they caused my lip to poke out. “We’re going to have to re-order these. Can you come back next week?” I had been hoping for same-day crowns, but that ship sailed the first day.
I returned the following week and had the new crowns fitted. This time they worked well, but the teeth next to them needed to be built up on the edges and fronts so that there was uniformity. The dentist did the required work of adding the compound. When he was done, he asked for my approval. I looked at my smile in his mirror and as far as I could tell, everything looked great. I really just wanted to be done with it so I could get back to life.
Shortly after I had returned home, I noticed that the teeth they had built up with compound were a different color than the new crowns and the other adjacent teeth. Kayla said she hadn’t noticed and that I shouldn’t be concerned about it. I was though. Just not enough to do anything about it. We had paid six thousand dollars to have my teeth corrected and as far as I was concerned the job was not complete. But I was a very agreeable person then and I did not like conflict so I let it go and have never had the issue further corrected.
For a while I was self-conscious about the discoloration and felt that everybody could tell the difference and were judging me for it. I waited for that kid from my past to come back and tell me that just because my teeth were fake didn’t mean I shouldn’t brush them. He never came back. And I realized that people are likely not paying attention to my teeth and that helped me to get past my fears of judgment.
I like to smile. It’s one of my favorite things to do. My smile may not be perfect, but it’s mine and I’m going to continue deploying it on a daily basis in the hopes that it will help other people feel comfortable deploying theirs too.