Most people in this world are blessed to have a full set of teeth. Myself on the otherhand not so much.
I was born with all my teeth except my eye-teeth. (Those are the teeth next to your two front teeth.) I had one baby eye tooth on one side and was completely missing the other. When My adult front teeth came in the single baby tooth got knocked out.
After braces I had a retainer with spacers in it to keep the gaps open and eventually upgraded to a retainer with fake teeth on it so that no one could see the gaps.
After many years of waiting I finally underwent dental implant surgery in early 2008. They doctor had to give me a bone graft first so that the screws that the new eye teeth would screw onto had support since the bone had decayed where the roots would have been. A few months later the CAT scan showed the graph took and screws were put in. Another CAT scan was done months later and it appeared everything was good.
So the doctor moved on to the next step and put in abutments, which is kind of like a washer to go between the screw post and the fake teeth.
Then the worst thing imaginable happened......
While the doctor was trying to put on said washers everything broke loose. The bone graft broke up inside my gums and the metal posts came out with chunks of bone. The CAT scans had lied. I was devastated.
Shortly after it was discovered that I have Fibromyalgia and that was the reason my body rejected the implants. I cried. I had waited almost 20 years for teeth and it looked like it wasn't meant to be.
Finally a doctor came up with a solution. He proposed the use of a dental technique that most doctors now days do not recommend do to life expectancy.... Maryland Bridges.
That is when fake teeth are made and are given wings. The wings then are glued onto the backside of the surrounding teeth.
Due to the location and the noticablity of using traditional metal wings the doctor consulted with 3M to find out what kind of teeth they could come up with.
They designed a set of teeth that are a mix of cubic zirconia and porcelain with the wings molded on using the same materials. They then had to design a special glue so that the strange ceramic mix could stick to my teeth. They couldn't find one. So they looked for a unique substance that could stick to the wings that glue could stick to and did.
Finally I got my teeth with primer and glue and I would not trade them for anything in the world. I know have to be careful what I eat though due to the possibility of them breaking.
I awoke in an panic screaming. I instantly felt inside my mouth to make sure my teeth were still there. Phew! It was okay.
My boyfriend who was asleep next to me woke up to my screams and asked, "What's the matter! Honey are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just a nightmare." I replied.
"About what?!?!" He asked.
At that point I couldn't believe how silly it was and started laughing as I explained that I dreamed that he had force-fed me hard caramel and it ripped my teeth out.
Moral of the post? Dreaming about eating candy can be PRETTY scary :)
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