My biggest fear (aside from arachnids) would most certainly be to lose my teeth! I have had many a recurring dream in my life of teeth crumbling, being excessively wobbly, or just plain falling out, and they terrify me! Closely behind the whole teeth falling out fears, are my insecurities about my teeth generally. I don’t like the colour, the little wonky one on the bottom, the fillings, the time I had a root canal, and the fact Iv’e had to have a couple removed.
Whilst they are generally okay and I work hard to take care of them now, and whilst I have perfected my smile with teeth showing, thinking I do actually look quite pretty, there are still improvements I frequently envision. It is because of the latter and less of my insecurities, that whilst out of comfort zone I was excited when The Centre for Advanced Dentistry Yorkshire got in touch and asked me to share my thoughts on my smile…(so here goes!).
Thoughts on my Smile
Be it out of fear of something actually happening to them, or just plain insecurity, but talking about my teeth and drawing attention to them is something I dislike very much. I know without a doubt, hands down, that I am one of the three quarters of people whose confidence would improve if I had work done on my smile. I also live in hope that doing so would conquer my teeth falling out nightmares too!
Its annoying really because I actually love to smile. Sometimes I hide behind my smile and wear it as a mask, but mostly I genuinely love to laugh out loud and give a big cheesy grin when faced with a camera. Smiling is good for the soul and it make us beautiful, I really believe that. I have learnt that smiling feels fantastic and that whatever I face in life, one thing to be sure of is that to smile will see me through, or rather finding things that make me smile will help keep me in a good place!
Despite loving a good grin and chuckle, I find that any comments geared towards my teeth, my smile and my mouth generally all make me uncomfortable, cringe, and surface feelings of insecurity. They at one time would have upset me, but with time I have increased in confidence a little more, and more so just cringe and shy away. Only in the last 10 years have I made a conscious effort to over come this and smile with my teeth, because up until then I thought I looked weird, or even unattractive if I did. I now realise it looks so much better.
As a child I don’t think I did great at taking care of my teeth, and know for a fact that I ate far too many sweets…the evidence is in memories of fillings and a missing molar. But this was short lived, as when adolescence hit I became more than serious at taking care of my oral health, and very eager to see the dentist. We worked together to fix my gappy/wonky smile with a retainer and some minor cosmetic dentistry, and within a year or 2 my confidence had sky rocketed.
Perhaps I am one of the weird ones, but dentists don’t bother me. They never have and if i’m honest I actually enjoy going. It’s kinda odd really when you think about it, that for someone who is so awkward and insecure about their teeth, and for someone who has had so much work done, would be so happy to go to a place all about the very thing they squirm at! But quite possibly it is due to the realisation that they can cure the dissatisfaction’s I have, and so I tolerate drills, needles or a general check up.
Over the last 16 years I have continued to regularly have my smile checked out by the professionals, discovered whitening toothpastes, and had someone fall in love with what he describes as “a beautiful smile”.All have helped me widen my smile and boosted my confidence, and they have helped me look at pictures and feel happy and pretty with what I see.
I even wear an array of lipsticks on a (mostly) daily basis which of course draw attention to the very area of my face I have shy’d from in the past. But whilst I am in a better place with how I see my smile, and have so many things to smile about (and do smile about) daily, I still have the niggling teeth falling out fears at the back of my mind, and the strong desire to have them whitened. I know if I had a tonne of money I would totally go for veneers (another dream I’ve had). But for now, here in my 30’s, I work hard to take care of what I have and hope for the day (hopefully this year) when I can have them whitened. I know without a doubt that doing so would tip me over the “secure/insecure about my teeth” line.
So if like me you are considering cosmetic or implant dentistry in 2017 to improve your smile in someway, and are lucky enough to be in West Yorkshire, then why not pop over to The Centre for Advanced dentistry and grab a quote! They offer patients an array of dental treatments to the very highest standards in Cosmetic Dentistry, Implant Dentistry and General Dentistry, and are regularly helping people transform their smile.
*I have been compensated for writing this post