It’s official: I am a 50-something woman with a redneck smile -- a big gap where my bottom left molars used to be. When I came home from the dentist minus those two teeth, I felt about 100 years old. To me, losing those teeth to decay wasn’t just a sign that my body was aging -- I’ve had plenty of those. It was a sign that it was falling apart.
Sure, my loss was insignificant compared to the bilateral mastectomy a close friend of mine had just had. But the gut punch to the ego was just the same.
My attitude probably would have stayed that way had I not chosen to replace my missing teeth the way I did. I refused to get false teeth -- which would have made me feel like a 200-year-old. Instead, I opted for dental implants: crowns attached to titanium posts sunk into my jaw in place of tooth roots.
Now, three months later, I’m halfway through the process, and as I scrub and sanitize the site where little titanium posts poke out from my gum awaiting their crowns, I don’t feel old at all. Once crowns are attached to the posts, I’ll be as good as new, able to chew the crustiest artisan bread.
So it turns out this isn’t just a dental problem I can’t fix, it’s a solution based on pretty amazing new technology. I feel … bionic. I’m an avid cyclist, and one of my prized possessions is my high-tech carbon-fiber bicycle. I feel that way about my smile, now: I love my high-tech titanium teeth.
Photo: @iStockphoto.com/sdominick
