My Background - What Led Me to Needing Dentures

I was blessed with a very nice smile when I was younger.  I never needed braces and was often complimented on how nice my smile was.  While I was a child, and through my teenage years, my parents made sure that I received regular dental care and that I took care of my teeth.  I moved out a few months after graduating high school, and after a couple of years my dental health began it's decline.  Actually, this journey technically began when I was a child - I was told by my dentist when I was about 8 years old or so that I had "soft" teeth/enamel and that I would probably need dentures sooner then most  - "Probably by the age of 35."   She was right.

I moved into an apartment a few months after high school with my boyfriend (now husband) Jarred.  That was in September 2002.  We got engaged for Christmas in December, and then in May 2003 found out, very unexpectedly, that I was pregnant.  I was on the pill, and it was a shock, but after a few weeks we were so happy!  My oldest son, Xavier, was born in December 2013.  I first noticed dental issues when he was about 6 months old.  My very back teeth, my molars, began to literally fall apart.  I did not think too much of it, but I should have.  Also during this time, I had medical insurance, but not dental, so I missed out on getting regular check-ups, which further pushed my teeths' decline.

A few years later I had my 2nd son, Aiden, born in December 2006.  Again, during the pregnancy and especially after he was born, I experienced more decay and destruction of my teeth.  This is also when I began to experience pain and sometimes infections with my teeth.  But, I continued to be naive, and did not realize how poor I was in my decision making.  With each passing day, my teeth were getting worse and worse.  By this time I was  22 years old.

I had my 3rd son, Conner in January 2011.  My pregnancy and months after delivery with him did my poor teeth in.  A few months after he was born I finally was able to see a dentist and the news I received was devastating - my teeth had become so decayed, so broken, that I would need to have all my teeth pulled and get full upper and lower dentures.   By this time pain had become an everyday occurrence and the infections I got in my teeth and mouth were happening more and more.  Some mornings I would wake up with a hugely swollen face from an infection, and I was taking so many over-the-counter pain medications that I began to worry about causing damage to my stomach, liver, etc. 

I also began to not want to smile and had become so, so ashamed of how my teeth looked.  Me, the girl who had a smile that so many people loved, was now barely smiling in pictures at all, as you can see here:

Looking back, there were definitely plenty of warning signs that I should have heeded and acted upon.  However, life is about moving forward, not dwelling on the past, so I have made peace with it.  I can't go back and change it, so why stress over it? 

So that's why I wear dentures, for better or worse. =)  My process of realizing I needed dentures to actually getting them, however, was another battle in itself.