My smile is broken.
After years of living with an ever widening gap between my front teeth, I finally decided to spring for veneers. By spring for, I mean finance. I am paying for them myself, out of my student budget, and it will take several years to get them paid off at my current level of income. Perhaps veneers were a luxury rather than a neccessity, but I've been told in the past that I would probably never get hired for any position dealing with the public unless my teeth were fixed. Looks based discrimination? Yeah, probably. But the gap also bothered me: I looked in the mirror and saw a second grader staring back at me. While I do think our culture places way too much value on a woman's appearance, this was something that affected my self esteem to the point that I stopped smiling. Pictures of me are either sultry or somber. And it's too late to get braces, according to my dentist. The gap is already too far gone.
So, veneers. I went to Dr. ----- at VitalDent, and got impressions made. A few weeks later I was back in the dentist's chair to have my actual teeth reshaped (read: drilled a bit around the edges) so the veneers could be attached. I was given my temporary veneers, which were made of plastic. A long strip of plastic. I no longer had teeth: I had a strip of tooth. The individual porcelain veneers, which adhere to each tooth, will be ready in two weeks. In the mean time: the strip of tooth.
Except now it's a broken strip of tooth. I was sitting down to white pizza at my favorite little parlour in the village, when I felt something in my mouth that wasn't pizza. Sure enough, two of the six "teeth" had broken off the strip. Not wanting to be assymetrical, I quickly broke off the other end of the temporary veneer. Now all I have are two front teeth, like in the Christmas song. Only they're made of plastic. And my dentist won't be back to fix this travesty until Tuesday.
At least they cover the gap.
So, veneers. I went to Dr. ----- at VitalDent, and got impressions made. A few weeks later I was back in the dentist's chair to have my actual teeth reshaped (read: drilled a bit around the edges) so the veneers could be attached. I was given my temporary veneers, which were made of plastic. A long strip of plastic. I no longer had teeth: I had a strip of tooth. The individual porcelain veneers, which adhere to each tooth, will be ready in two weeks. In the mean time: the strip of tooth.
Except now it's a broken strip of tooth. I was sitting down to white pizza at my favorite little parlour in the village, when I felt something in my mouth that wasn't pizza. Sure enough, two of the six "teeth" had broken off the strip. Not wanting to be assymetrical, I quickly broke off the other end of the temporary veneer. Now all I have are two front teeth, like in the Christmas song. Only they're made of plastic. And my dentist won't be back to fix this travesty until Tuesday.
At least they cover the gap.