A Nine-Year-Old's Nightmare Finally Gets Redemption

It's Labor Day, 1987, the day before the first day of school in a town I was still fairly new to. My friend Susan Hiser and I were riding bikes down Snob Hill onto Applegate St. in Philomath. It's a blast, the sun is hot, and the wind feels good in my face. We go again and again, trying to get more speed every time. All of a sudden, the handlebars on my purple, flowered, banana seat bike starts shaking side to side. I try to brake, but it only spins the bike out of control, flipping me over the handlebars and landing me next to the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill. Groaning, I tried to assess the damage. Susan ran over, and I could tell from the look on her face, that it wasn't pretty. She knocked on the nearest door and phoned my parents. While we were waiting for my mom to come get me and my bike, the man of the house tried to clean up my face, but it was a mess. Split lip, scrapes and bruises all over, and, wait, what's that? It feels like something's wrong inside my mouth... My front teeth are broken!

Next morning I wake up, remember what happened as soon as my tongue feels the jagged edge and unnatural void in my mouth. Do I really have to go to school like this? Yes, of course I do. My mom is too no-nonsense to let me get away with embarrassment as a valid excuse to miss the first day of school. I put on a pink-striped knit polo drop-waist dress. Perhaps attention to fashion will distract from the horror that is my face. I grab my Barbie and the Rockers lunch box and head further into my nightmare. "What happened!" "You alright?" "Ouch, that looks like it hurts!" I've told the story probably 10 times by 9 am. At least no one is making fun of me. The girls are sympathetic, the boys think it's cool.

A week or so later, the scrapes and bruises are finally starting to heal. I look almost normal when I don't smile. Mom takes me to Dr. Baker, the local dentist, to fix my teeth. He bonds a tooth colored resin to the chipped part to fix it. Wow! They feel totally normal all of a sudden! Looks pretty good too - fixed the gap in my teeth and everything!

Fast forward twenty years. Since that initial fix, my teeth have probably broken 5 or more times and had to be re-bonded. In high school I was called "Chip" by my friend Rae Ann. I called her "Rash Ann" back, but I don't remember why. Even as an adult, one friend jokingly called me Lloyd Christmas :) (Lucky for her, I thought it was funny...)

It's happened again. The bottom of my front, right tooth is chipped. But as luck went in my favor, my brother became a dentist. Time to go for a visit! We can't re-bond the teeth anymore, but the world of teeth aesthetics has come up with a permanent solution - Lumineers! For not less than an arm and a leg, I can have movie star teeth that won't chip, will be perfectly shaped, and permanently whitened. The beat up nine-year-old in me is ecstatic :)

Before:

After: