Do any of these statements sound familiar?
“I can’t eat.”
“I don’t have any friends.”
“I don’t leave the house.”
“I can’t smile at anybody, not even my spouse.”
“My teeth have caused a lot of health issues.”
“I have to cover my mouth because I haven’t been able to smile in years.”
“I want to be able to smile and look at people and have a conversation. Right now, I can’t.”
What do these statements all have in common? They are all real quotes from New Teeth Now patients. Many of our patients feel this way when they first come to New Teeth Now seeking help.
For someone who is embarrassed by their smile, the face masks used during the pandemic were an unexpected relief. One of our patients helped us tell this story in a short film we produced last year. Watch it here:
Our teeth are visible whenever we talk, smile, or laugh … It’s impossible to hide our teeth without making major changes to the way we would normally act. From an outside perspective, hiding our teeth can seem unusual to the people around us.
If you feel embarrassed about your teeth, you probably practice a few of these adaptive behaviors:
- Tightening lips every time you smile
- Covering your mouth with your hand while talking
- Not laughing when you find something funny
- Eating alone, or declining invitations to dine with friends and family
- Avoiding being in a photo at a holiday party or while on vacation
- Staying home alone more often than you truly want to be
The problem with adaptive behavior is that it’s not a real solution to a problem. Hiding our teeth or avoiding foods because of tooth pain is a compromise in which a fulfilling lifestyle is traded for a manageable one. At some point you have to ask yourself, is that trade-off really worth it?
Build a New Smile from the Ground Up
Many of our patients come to us because of discomfort and embarrassment from loose-fitting dentures and partials. Not knowing if your prosthetic is going to fall out of your mouth every time you take a bite from a sandwich is a persistent annoyance.
Patients have shared a whole list of other issues that motivated them to research New Teeth Now. The most common cosmetic reasons driving people to hide their smiles include…
- Crooked teeth
- Smile gaps
- Missing teeth
- Braces
- Discoloration
- Bad breath
On its own, being unhappy with the way your smile looks will not be enough to qualify for New Teeth Now. If you do qualify, then having some control of the final product is one of the major benefits of a dental prosthetic.
In truth, there’s no one standard for a perfect smile. We have had patients who requested their canines or incisors on their prosthetic be enlarged or elongated. An appearance of tilt or crookedness in some teeth has also been requested to give the smile a more natural quality. And while most people prefer a white smile, teeth can come in many different shades that all look perfectly healthy.
That said, not every aspect of the design is customizable. A few examples of restorative design restrictions include:
- Cannot compromise the structural integrity of the prosthetic
- Cannot affect the functionality of bite or alignment
- Cannot pose a risk to the patient’s health or wellbeing
Designing a New Teeth Now prosthetic is a conversation the patient has with our restorative team. Having the lab in-house makes a huge difference in helping our patients achieve a functional bite that’s properly aligned while achieving the appearance they need to give them that extra boost of confidence.
Why Did My Teeth Get So Bad?
You might be asking yourself, “How did my teeth get so unmanageable in the first place?”
First, don’t blame yourself. Chances are you know someone who seems to do as much, or even less than you do to maintain their oral health. When it comes to failing teeth, not everything is preventable.
More often than not, dental issues are a combination-result of diet, age, dental hygiene and (most importantly) genetics. There is nothing fair about having bad teeth. While advancements in our dental care technology have come a long way in the last hundred years, there is little that can be done to save your teeth when you have inherited the genes that lead to tooth loss.
Genetics aside, other factors that can lead to serious dental health complications include:
- Dental trauma caused by an accident or medical issue
- Odontophobia, or the fear of dentists, because of bad past experiences
- Diseases like diabetes impacting oral health as a side effect
- Difficult pregnancies causing bone loss and periodontal disease
No one deserves to have bad teeth. And no one deserves to be judged because of the way their smile looks.
Over the years, we have built a judgment-free culture committed to helping people overcome setbacks. When you come for a consultation at New Teeth Now, you can expect gold star treatment from our entire team of technicians, implant coordinators and oral surgeons.
How Smile Insecurity Affects Relationships
It can be difficult to not fixate on what we see in ourselves as personal flaws. When pain or hunger is associated with that flaw, it becomes impossible to ignore. These insecurities affect our moods, and our confidence levels, and they can lead to big changes in the way we act. These behavioral changes are easily misinterpreted by the people we know.
Have you ever felt misunderstood by the people in your life for reasons like those below?
- A friend keeps asking you why you’re angry with them.
- Your supervisor assumes you have something (other than your teeth) to hide.
- Acquaintances have accused you of being unhappy and antisocial.
As an unfortunate consequence, dental insecurities create major life setbacks. Lacking confidence can make a difference in how you perform in your next job interview, for example. The same thing can make romantic relationships unfulfilling.
Social wellbeing is a big factor in leading a happy life. If you believe you have dental insecurities caused by medical issues, there is a solution.
People Just Like You Have Made a Change
New Teeth Now is a medical procedure that replaces all of a person’s remaining natural teeth with prosthetic bridges. While it has cosmetic benefits, our goal is to give people with failing teeth a highly functional alternative to inferior options like dentures or periodontal maintenance.
If you would like to learn more about New Teeth Now, please do reach out. We are here to answer your questions.
