John R Purcell

The other day at lunch I bit on something hard which turned out to be a piece of a tooth that had broken off. When I checked my teeth in a mirror I saw that it had come from one on the left side of the upper jaw and was visible when I smiled. Although I am not one to smile often, it would be embarrassing to appear in public and display my gap tooth smile, so a visit to the dentist was quickly arranged. At the dentists office it was determined that it would be necessary to remove some of the broken tooth and install a crown, an artificial tooth, in place of it. Before beginning the procedure, the dentist injected a local anesthetic in the gum above the tooth which effectively numbed the area of the broken tooth.

After drilling and grinding, a temporary crown was cemented in place which I would wear until a permanent one was made. Confident that I could now smile without revealing an unattractive gap in my teeth, I remarked to the dental technician as I was leaving, "Now I can smile again.", as I flashed my newly repaired smile. I would soon regret that I did that.

When I got home, I was anxious to see how the new tooth looked and when I looked in the mirror and smiled I was horrified to see a rather grotesque face looking back at me.

The left side of my face was still numb from the shot I had received and none of the facial muscles responded when I smiled. This caused the right side of my mouth to form a sort of half smile and the left to remain unchanged as if it was frozen. The result was a most weird looking face, typical what you usually see in horror movies. I had been out in public like that, smiling at people who were probably startled, if not horrified when they saw it. Needless to say I remained indoors the rest of the day and hoped that my face would return to its normal appearance eventually. If something like this happens again, I will be sure to use a paper bag over my head until it is taken care of.