FiftyBogue

I was born with bad teeth (well not literally, but, you know…). And then they got worse. Having inherited my mother’s bad dental genes (she had full dentures by 35), I then contracted scarlet fever and was given the antibiotic tetracycline when my adult teeth were developing. So my teeth were always kind of a grayish color and developed fractures. Add to this the fact that flossing wasn’t something known to occur in our house while I was growing up, and that I had more tetracycline for my acne as a teenager, and that’s how I wound up with a filling in every off-colored tooth. But there’s more! My jaw is small and my teeth are kind of scrunched up and one of my front teeth never fully descended and was always shorter than the other. They weren’t deemed crooked enough for braces back then, so they stayed with me. Fortunately, I was never very aware of how gray and crooked they were.

UNTIL I got veneers on my four front teeth in 1986, that is. Then everyone felt obliged to tell me how they’d always wondered how my front tooth got broken, but never wanted to ask. (In fact, no one HAD ever asked.) When I moved back to Kansas City I became a patient of Dr. M., and he’s taken good care of me, putting crowns on eight of my molars over the years. But he’s always been keen on improving my smile, something I wanted too, but couldn’t afford. But veneers aren’t supposed to last more than 20 years, and mine were 22. So, after selling the house, I put some of the money aside for new choppers and this past summer I started the whole grueling process. I was persuaded to have my canine teeth redone as well, and instead of veneers, I went with full “jackets” which I guess is what they call caps nowadays.

I’ll spare you the details – no one reads a blog for the dental procedures (I hope) – but suffice to say that after weeks of bleaching, 4 long dentist appointments, 3 of which involved 6-12 shots of a novacaine/epinephrine cocktail that left me jumpy and my face numb until bedtime, more drilling than I want to remember, and consultations with the “tooth artist” who makes the teeth, I now have a Hollywood smile. Here’s the proof:

(Remember – even these “before” pics aren’t my natural teeth. So I’ve included one with those…)