I remembered Self-Portrait Tuesday!

That's a nice smile, right? This is supposed to be "all of me" and I like my smile itself just fine. But it's my teeth and jaw that give me problems. Let me start at the beginning, even though I'm not sure it it's all connected. I didn't start talking until I was three. My parents were afraid I had a hearing problem or some other problem. But when I needed to speak I did. It was mostly to defend myself from my brothers seeing as my first word was "no" and my second word was "stop." I was also a big thumb sucker. I still completely understand the comforting sensation of thumb sucking. I didn't stop until I was in Fourth grade.
But let me go back. Once I started talking, I needed speech therapy. At nursery school I got to meet with this great lady who played games with me and helped me pronounce lots of letters.
The bottom line is, my jaws never lined up right. I went through a tongue crib, braces twice, and jaw surgery when I was 13 years old. When the surgery was over and I started to recover I realized my teeth actually touched. They never had before.
And they don't now. My mouth is just a mess. I've learned to make the "s" sound very carefully against my bottom teeth, where I still have a glued in retainer. I'm afraid to have it taken out because it wouldn't feel the same and I might have problems making the "s" sound and that would just be embarrassing at my age.
I only go to one dentist who has been through all this with me. Once I had an appointment and his new partner checked in on me and was like, what is going on in here? I mumbled that I had surgery, but with all the stuff in my mouth he thought I said I was having surgery. No I HAD it--this is as good as it gets.
Luckily, everything looks pretty good to the untrained eye. Except for my receding gums. And can you tell which front tooth is mostly fake? In first grade I was fooling around in the car while saying goodbye to a friend my mom was dropping off. I knocked my teeth against the window and sheered the front off my new adult front tooth. My faithful dentist fixed me up and I've never need the fake part replaced. That's when I decided I loved that dentist. He even put the little tiny grooves in the front tooth.
I need to make a dentist appointment.