I’m missing teeth. Four to be exact. You would never know it unless I told you, but I already did. The funny thing about genetics is that I was born without them.
When I smile it looks like I have real teeth, but they’re not. Three of them are porcelain and screwed into my jawbone. The fourth missing tooth is not important since it does not destroy my ability to chew food. It’s a molar and all the way at the back of my mouth. It’s not missed but my lateral incisors and premolar are. Lateral incisors are the teeth right next to your two front teeth. Without them you look like a cute rabbit or lamprey.
I had braces in high school so you wouldn’t have noticed the missing teeth, but once the braces came off smiling was not an option. It wasn’t until my freshman year in college that I was able to have “real” teeth or as real as they could get. I had a three-hour surgery and a fun recovery time afterwards. I was awake for the whole surgery and able to listen to the soothing sounds of the drill. Not to mention, I was able to smell the wonders of bone dust which smells like burning plastic if you wanted to know. I couldn’t really eat anything after surgery except for ice cream and yogurt for a month which is horrible if you love toasted bread. I tried to eat plain, soft bread, but it just wasn’t the same.
Although I still have to cut the corn kernels off the cob, I can at least smile and feel confident.