Feeling hopeless about my teeth, could use some kind words

[housedatlast]

Hey yall. I was homeless or housing insecure for most of my adult life, and as a result, my dental hygiene has been lacking. I've recently made a lot of progress with finding a place to stay and generally improving my oral hygiene, but the price of dental care has remained prohibitive to me, and after a certain point I just accepted my teeth were doomed. It's been about eight years since I've been able to see a dentist. My teeth are yellow and ugly, they have white spots in places, and there's dark staining in between most of them from coffee and cola.

But next month, I finally have the opportunity to visit one of those free pop-up dental clinics in my area and I've been feeling so anxious and ashamed and am having trouble psyching myself up to go. I stay awake most nights agonizing about it.I feel like the dentist will be grossed out by my teeth, belittle me, and just end up having to pull most of them anyway. I have a few broken molars that will need to be extracted no matter what, I know, but my breaking point was tonight when I was brushing, I felt one of my front teeth chip near the gum line.



I'm scared of losing them all and having nothing - because the pop-up clinic only does simple fillings and extractions, not denture services or anything like that. I want to be better, I wish I'd taken better care of them. I'm so tired of never being able to smile in public.

 

[Traumatown]

I think you’ll be surprised honestly. Actually going to the appointment and sharing your feelings g with a professional will be so helpful for you . I’m interested to hear how you go on

 

[letsconnect]

Hi there, a lot of people would be really happy to have teeth as good as yours, so don't beat yourself up over it! You will find that a lot of the people who visit the free clinics are in a much worse position than yourself (dental-wise), and the dentists who offer their services there will absolutely not be "grossed out" or taken aback. I'm sure they will welcome the opportunity to help you and get you back on track .

They will probably recommend removing the ring though because it's likely to cause gum recession and potentially severe bone or tooth loss over time, so you may want to think about removing it in the longer run or substitute it with something that's away from the mouth.

Congratulations on making so much progress with the housing situation and your personal life, it sounds as if you've made some massive strides forwards and your work and determination has paid off!

Please let us know how you get on, best of luck with the free clinic