I finally have my perfect smile!

Holy cow, what a ride this has been! I am proud to say that I am officially the owner of a brand new, PERFECT smile! I have had some time to think about what to say—for once in my life I had no words to express my happiness, the shock, and the sheer content that I have experienced. While the final product had been completed last week, I have been speechless, my mind lost in how to share this journey with all the readers. After a couple of days, I decided it best to wait to get my “before and after” shot, as the saying “a picture speaks a thousand words” has never been so true. Towards the end it has been improvement after improvement, and every time I’d go to blog, I just couldn’t seem to express what I felt and put it into words, I was practically dumbfounded with each event. So without further ado, here’s the remaining part of my story…

I believe I left everyone (geesh, forever and a day ago) with the Zoom Whitening. I had to get as close to my natural color so that the veneers would match my other teeth. That was quite the interesting appointment! After having everything gauzed, plastered, and protected in my mouth besides my teeth, they Zoomed away for an hour. Darla and I had to laugh—I was drooling EVERYWHERE! I mean down my chin, all in my mouth, on my face—I’m talking some serious saliva glands here folks. I think the hardest part of that visit was 1) not being able to talk for an hour, and 2) not being able to have coffee for 2 days! I was not the most pleasant person at 7:30 in the morning by the second day of no good Joe. Around hour 40 I caved—it was that or start throwing things…heavy things…at people. Not a pretty sight my friends. I had a brighter smile, but I was not a happy a camper suffering from caffeine withdrawal.

So I had my nice white teeth. I had one more step until the finale—my provisional set. This was it. Even though it was one plastic temporary piece, it was still the last time I would see gaps again. I was giddy as I left work to head to see Dr. Gibberman and say bye bye to my kid size teeth and spaces. I left work telling everyone to take one last look at my crappy (well, another choice word) smile and I shall return a new woman. When I arrived at the office, Darla showed me the provisional set. We both started getting excited and in true girl style, I pranced around like a 3rd grader at a Hanna Montana concert. First Dr. Gibberman had to prep my teeth. While not all veneers require shaving down your real teeth, I had to have it done because of all my gaps. I get my lovely dose of Novocain (who would have thought I wouldn’t wince one bit about getting shot up with that stuff), and he goes to work. When he was done prepping them, my curiosity got the best of me, and I asked if I could see what my teeth looked like before Darla put my provisional on. HAHAHA!!! What a sight! Dr. Gibberman joked, saying that most people say they look like pumpkin teeth—which honestly, they did! After a little more Novocain, the provisional was glued on, and voila! Darla and Dr. Gibberman were like, “Oh wow, that looks great!” I couldn’t stand it—I had to see it! Darla grabbed the mirror, asked if I was ready, and handed it to me. My jaw dropped. My eyes started to well. Controlling the tears, all I could say was, “oh my God!” I sat in the chair, kicking my feet, smiling as big as my Novocain numbed mouth could.

Well I had a month to get used to the provisional—after all, when you aren’t used to actually having a decent grill, you gotta make sure everything feels right. Downside—I had to be careful what I ate since it was just a temporary plastic piece. I quickly learned what was OK and was NOT—Tuesday wing night turned ugly when I bit into a piece of celery and ended up with half a plastic tooth in my mouth. Oh, yeah, that was one day after I had them on! What a phone call that was, “Umm, Hannah? Yeah, this is Veronica. I sort of broke one the teeth off last night eating celery…” Fortunately the way it broke, and the fact I didn’t swallow that piece, it was fixable. However (and this is just my luck), I quickly realized I do indeed grind my teeth at night—I woke up to feeling I was doing something odd, and then I realized it was that same dang tooth, hang stuck on the set and half stuck on my lip! DOH! I only had one week left too before my permanent set came in! “Umm, Hannah? Yeah, it’s Veronica again. I broke that tooth in my sleep. I swear, I wasn’t eating celery again!” Another bonding and a travel size Fixodent incase I had another “accident” later, I was good and ready for the permanents!

Then the time finally came. After all the preparing, I was going to have my perfect smile! When I got there, Darla showed me my veneers, neatly placed on the mold of my teeth. Holy crap, I couldn’t wait to get them on (ugh, and floss too—that provisional set had reached its expiration and I needed some room to floss). She popped off the provisional (whew, I had that felling you get when you rip off your gym shoes) and cleaned up my stubs for the real deal. Dr. Gibberman made sure everything was going to fit right, and the next thing you know my little porcelain gems were individually bonded to what remained of my crappy old teeth. A few adjustments later, I stood up in absolute amazement and hugged Dr. Gibberman. Everyone there kept saying that the real deal would look even better than the provisional, and man were they right! I couldn’t stop smiling, even though my upper lip was still numb. I think I looked in the mirror every chance I could get. At that point I still didn’t know what to say—all I could do was look at myself and smile.

So today I got my before and after pictures—talk about complete and utter amazement. With his sweet camera and computer software, my pics were loaded into my portfolio, and then put side by side with my old pic. I had to step back. All I could do was shake my head and catch my breath. I just simply couldn’t believe it. Speechless, completely speechless. Right now I’m about to cry thinking about it. All these years I have hid my teeth, ashamed of my hideous smile, paranoid that people are thinking mean cruel things about me. Confession: I would take white chewing gum and shove it around my teeth, trying to get a mere glimpse of what I would look like if I had a normal smile.

I’m almost ashamed of what my teeth looked like before—actually I am. I altered so many things to hide them, and to be able to flash a smile freely is so uplifting. I laugh about it now, saying I looked so hillbilly, but I just can’t believe what a difference there is. *Sigh* I almost don’t feel deserving of this, something so wonderful that makes me feel great about myself.

Dr. Gibberman—you truly are the best. You have changed me, not just from my beautiful smile, but from everything you have done. Your office and staff are AMAZING (shout out to all the gals who took such good care of me). You took me from this horrific fear of the dentist, to anticipating my next visit—a feat all in its own, then created this stunning smile on top of it all. Everyone there truly understands what it’s all about. I sincerely feel blessed beyond belief, and one day I will find the perfect way to say thank you, as it just doesn’t seem fitting enough. You are all truly special people and I will forever be gracious for all you have done.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for where I reveal what I hid so well and the beautiful new smile…..TA DA!!!