Here we go!

No one is born "perfect." We all have our outward flaws - some have big noses, some have teeny-tiny ears, skin issues, hair problems, etc...Me? Well, I don't have a perfect smile. I've lived with it for 35 years, so of course, I'm used to it, but I'm not happy with it. The dislike started in high school once my "flaw" started becoming more noticeable. I would smile, but not naturally and I would be very guarded in opening my mouth too much (unless I was around my family and closest friends). This "flaw" you ask? I call it...THE FANG!

Noticeably, you can see (on your left side) that the one canine is higher up than it should be. This is due to having an upper jaw that is too narrow to fit all my teeth correctly! All the other teeth were apparently fighting for places to grow, so this poor little fella had no place to go but "up" if you will! After consulting with my wonderful orthodontist, Dr. Mai Ferrera and the oral surgeon Dr. Andrea Quaroni (I'll talk more about them later), the solution to helping better my smile and overall dental health is to widen my upper jaw, not only to fix dear Fang, but so that my bit can be "normal" and so my teeth can fit in their places properly. You'll see below that Fang has even stepped into the limelight and is practically in front of another tooth:

It ain't pretty, but it will be! There's also the other issue in that my mouth (or my face, it's hard to tell!) is not aligned, so the "centers" don't meet like they should (you can determine this yourself by looking at the first picture!).

I've lived with this for 35 years, but now, for some reason, I feel it's the time to do something about it. With God's help and support from friends I know the outcome will be pleasant, albeit a little painful and a good test of patience, I'm sure!

I'm going to post pictures along the way to show the progress - no fear, I won't post anything that will make your stomach churn! Heck, if I can't even look, then why should you??

I'm not sure who will read this, but maybe, just maybe someone will be able to relate to it and hopefully I can help that person along the way in their own journey.

So...here we go! First "before" pic: