I CONFESS
I finally decided to a permanent solution to the front tooth that I broke when I was seven. I broke it the day my brother was born, my sister and I went to the school early morning to play on the playground, and in an unusual bout of adventurousness, I somehow slid headfirst down the metal slide and hit my face on the side before dismounting.It didn't hurt, but I was like oh crap, mom is in the hospital and it's just dad. I remember being surprised that he knew where my dentist was. The dentist put on some temporary stuff that lasted until I was about 22 (!!!!) and ever since then I had to have it replaced every year because it would get thin and or crumble. Luckily the root and top half is fine, so I just needed to get some porcelain veneers. I opted to get both front teeth done to make it look as natural as possible. I was hoping insurance would cover the broken tooth and I would just have to worry about the other one. Nope. Considered cosmetic for both. Dang.
This wasn't an easy choice for me, I mean, why fuck up a perfectly good tooth??? But at the end of the day, it just made sense since it was going to be my front teeth and the main reason was to have a smile I would feel confident about. The other reason was to try to eliminate having to go to the dentist so often. Sometime last year, Aug? Sept? I had the yearly temp thing done and the very next morning, I woke up and a piece on the corner just came off. I was like UGH. So I left it like that while I deliberated over if I wanted to get the porcelain veneer done.
I went in for a cleaning, and my dentist went over what it would entail, and I said I would think about it. He said it was no problem doing one tooth, he would be able to match it to the other one. But I knew that doing both would obviously look better.
The new year came and went, and by the end of January, I was like, ok, let's do this.
First visit they take a mold, shave down both teeth, take another mold, put in some temps and there you go. I mean, two hours still. I come back two weeks later, they peel/grind/pull off the temps and grind some more and try to put in the permanent ones. The fit just almost perfect, but my dentist doesn't want almost perfect. He wants PERFECT. Which I respect. He continues to shape and grind the new teeth trying to get them to fit the way he wants. But this was heading towards the end of the two hours and I could tell he was now having to rush. He decides no, he wants me to come back after he talks to the lab tech to redo my new teeth. Dang.
The receptionist comes in to help, I get more molds done, and some quick temps again. It was not a pleasant visit, and I normally love the dentist. I was in a lot of pain, needed an extra Novocain shot (I was really trying to grit through it because I didn't want another shot but the numbness was gone, this would be shot number three for this visit). I had that purple mold gunk all over, ha, even my hair. The molds I liked getting done, but the grinding on my non-numb tooth I did not like.
Almost to the next visit, I was eating a bagel sandwich and off comes one of the temps. Dang. That isn't pleasant. Luckily I had some foresight to have some emergency dental adhesive and used that, but that would have to work until Thur and this was just Sunday. DANG.
I was really regretting this decision. Expensive? Check. Time-consuming? Check. Painful? Check. Awkward looking now with my terrible adhesive skills? CHECK.
I was feeling vain and stupid and trying very hard not to cry. What have I done!
So I did my best to try to take photos of the process. It's kind of hard to take photos of teeth! I was trying to capture the small crack and chip in the corner of the fake tooth in the front but it just wasn't showing up very well.
WARNING SUPER UNGLAMOROUS PHOTOS
why am I posting these online
Original Teeth:
And here is my very terrible emergency adhesive job (I cannot believe I took a photo of this):
I went upstairs and tried to busy myself with cleaning and vacuuming and folding laundry, but I succumbed to the tears and had a little cry. It was difficult to cry for long because Kazu decided he needed lots of pets and was being very cute. BUT STILL MY TEETH MY GOD IT'S TERRIBLE. I knew I only had to deal with this for Mon-Tue-Wed but that still felt like a long time to look like I had a chiclet for a tooth! The despair, it was real. I already had taken off so much time for these dang teeth when this was supposed to result in fewer visits.
I decided to just wear a mask at work since I work in a clinic setting anyways for my vanity. The terrible chiclet tooth fell off almost immediately anyway. By the end of Monday, I was making jokes about it, since people were asking me if I was sick. Nope, just my vanity trying to cover up my hillbilly smile right now ;)
I make it through to Thursday, and the visit didn't take that long and now my teeth look like this:
So I guess better?
I am normally not a fussy person about my looks so this felt like too much to go through. I don't even get my hair cut or nails done. So you know I will not be making visits to get any more cosmetic dental work done.
