My Story of Eroded Teeth

Posted on May 12, 2005 in Dentition

Some years ago, thanks to my mental disease, my teeth eroded quite spectacularly so that they resembled the spires at Bryce Canyon. They ached constantly because the bacteria living in them interacted with the sugars I took in and drilled caves for themselves. My incisors looked bad. One was literally split in half. All four of them were rounded off at the inner corner because of my compulsive habit of biting on a pen and rolling it.

A television person once told me that she thought my teeth lent me “character”. I didn’t think so. I was ashamed of my teeth. They looked bad. They hurt. I had trouble chewing. The joint in my jaw ached. And I had done it all to myself.

I chose the grueling path of restoring them. I had so many root canals that I have lost count (18 or 19?). I underwent a procedure called deep cleaning to get the plaque off the roots. Twice, once for each side of my mouth. All my teeth were ground down so that they could accomodate crowns. And in the end….the pains, the trouble chewing, and the ugliness went away.

What if I had listened to the woman in television who said that I should just learn to love my teeth for how they were? What if I listen to those who say that I should love my fat?

Do I love my body? Yes. That’s why I wanted it well.