My teeth have been the bane of my life for many years. As a young child my baby teeth refused to come out and I remember the awful times I needed gas to be put to sleep and get them removed. My big teeth were growing in all directions to get past the milk teeth. After what I thought would be a final trip for teeth removal I was referred to an orthodontist for a brace. I was in my very early teens at a guess and my mum came with me. I was horrified to be told I needed some teeth removing for the brace to fit, and something I regret to this day is that I point blank refused.
I don’t really remember a lot of persuading to change my mind and we went home and that was that. I would love to think that if they had told me that when I was older my bottom jaw would recede to the point I hate profile photos, or that I would smile with my mouth closed on most photos for many years ( looking like Zippy usually) I may have decided differently. But they didn’t tell me anything like that and as a child I probably wouldn’t listen anyway.
So from my twenties to my fifties my teeth have been a hated part of my body. The prices of braces were ridiculous and I knew there would be a chance I needed more extractions, which I was too scared to get done. So I carried on with this hatred, trying to hide my smile and teeth at every opportunity. Children are usually honest and at work one time, a young girl I was helping came out with ” Your teeth are like a vampires” I replied in the jokey way that I do, but that statement never left my mind. If my teeth did show on photographs the two front ones would look dark because they were set back, and as for the bottom ones …… it was like Stonehenge.
My friends have gorgeous teeth and I was very jealous. When I see photos of me doing a zippy, I can feel the anguish of that photo but no one else would guess. There would be the odd photo that caught me by surprise and I really didn’t like them.
Eventually after I had my stoma surgery and had been so unwell I decided I needed to treat myself and got a loan and braces. It has been the best decision that I have made, so two years and about five months ago, I braved my fear and had three teeth removed and got my brace fitted. I felt great straight away. I opted for a clear brace on the top and because of my overbite a metal brace on the bottom. ( The overbite is here to stay though unless I have jaw surgery and that’s a no from me).
I could slowly see an improvement and began to smile with my teeth showing, and yes it can be painful, and food gets caught in them but my self esteem was improving so much.
Last week I had the braces removed, which was mostly painless, and my teeth are so much better. I smile all the time and show them off, and photos are not an issue. I have many body parts that I don’t like, but the teeth thing was causing some real mental issues.
