A young woman who lost all her teeth from a nutritional deficiency gets trolled by haters who say she looks 50 years older and must have been a hard drug user.
Becca [surname not shared for privacy reasons] was in pain and suffered awkward stares from strangers for years, and had to avoid foods due to her raw gums and rotten teeth.
She was shocked when, aged just 22, doctors recommended that she have all of them removed and replaced with dentures.
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It’s been a difficult journey, with the now 25-year-old having to relearn how to talk and eat, and she still suffers comments from people online when sharing her story.
“Life before I lost all my teeth was hard,” Becca, a nanny, told Need To Know.
“I was in constant pain and couldn’t eat a lot of the things I love.
“I was constantly having to ice my face and a lot of the time it was swollen.
“People looked at me weird because my teeth were really bad and everyone thought I had done hard drugs.
“Doctors said I must have used crystal meth – but I hadn’t and I never would.
“I lost a lot of my confidence and wasn’t smiling very often, and I learned to talk in a way that didn’t show my teeth very much.
“I didn’t have access to dental care when I was younger but my teeth didn’t start getting really bad until I was around 18 and it progressed from there.
“When I was 22, I was diagnosed with severe vitamin deficiencies: vitamin b12, vitamin D, iron, vitamin C.
“It only took one procedure to get them all pulled – the whole procedure took about nine hours.
Becca’s lower gums shortly after having her teeth removed, with visible swelling and surgical sutures.
“After I got my teeth pulled, I had to learn to talk again and eat again and my confidence took a hit there too, until my dentures were made to fit my mouth the right way.”
Becca, who hails from Indiana, says the surgery was offered to her free of charge by the VCU School of Dentistry – though the dentures cost $3,000 (USD).
She had to wait two months for her mouth to fully heal before having dentures made.
Unfortunately, the first set was too big, which at first left her feeling distraught.
She said: “When they gave me the big ones, I had a breakdown, because I thought I’d never be able to truly smile again.
“That was really hard for me.
“They had to make me one more set of temporary dentures, which I wore for about eight months – then I got my permanents.
“I love the way my teeth look now.
“Having dentures has finally given me my confidence back.
“But there are still challenges.
“I’ve had a few people comment on my videos and tell me I look 75 or that it’s disgusting saying I’m ‘too young to have dentures’.
“In the past, I also dated someone who was embarrassed I had dentures and that really made me self-conscious.
“My current partner is very supportive, as are my friends.”
Becca wants to share her story to help others.
She added: “I’ve been posting a lot about my dentures trying to give insight and help others going through the same thing and I’ve been able to help a handful of people already.
“There are over 40 million people in the United States who have dentures.
“The majority of that is not from drugs – it’s from common dental diseases, genetics, health issues, ageing and accidents.
“I want to bring light to something that a lot of people deal with and to be able to be the voice for people who can’t speak for themselves.”
