Do you smile at strangers? I haven't in a very long time because
I've never had good teeth. They are all very brittle, chipping constantly, and for some reason that no one can determine, fillings won't properly bond to them. That means they had to be replaced every few years or they'd fall out. Of course, every time they replace a filling, they grind more of the tooth away. To top it all off, the roots of all of my front teeth were damaged in a car accident when I was a kid, resulting in my first root canal before I was out of my teens. After working full time for years just to support my dentistry bill I couldn't keep up.
The chips and cracks in my front teeth were going to require almost $10,000 to fix right. Who can afford that? When I asked about just pulling them and replacing them with a bridge, I was told they won't do that for teeth they still consider "viable" In other words, ones that they can get more money out of.
It's been years since I've smiled at a stranger, months since I've had a day without pain. Becoming a widow with a house full of kids to raise, it was never in the budget to do anything about it. My job ended at the beginning of the recession in a way that didn't give me unemployment benefits. Finally a dental office opened up near here that only does dentures and partials for a reasonable cost. After eight months of saving, yesterday was the day.
There was a moment I thought it wasn't going to happen. I was about $80 short, but the doctor authorized a discount to cover the 80 plus enough that I'd be able to afford my antibiotics (two kinds) and pain pills. After the discount and adding in the meds, I came in one dollar under budget.
They started at 8:30 in the morning. I finally got home about 6:00 that night. I'm sore and swollen and still spitting out blood, but I have a row of front teeth that are more beautiful than I've ever had and I'm so happy that I can't stop crying. I'm not totally done, as the swelling goes down they'll be adjusting it quite a bit and when the gumline settles in about a year, they'll actually replace this partial with a new one that's been cast to the final shape of my mouth. They might also pull one more tooth and add onto the partial at some point. All of that work is included in the package they gave me a discount to afford, otherwise I'd have to pay for the additions on my own.