"Accident to front tooth"

I want to give a bit of a back story before I share my experience. I am now in my 40s. I have never had any teeth removed or any fillings or anything. My teeth have always been extremely important to me. However, when I was 9 years old, I had an accident on a horse which resulted in my front tooth being knocked out with the root. The dentist at the time over a number of years managed to get the tooth in and my jaw attached to the tooth (ankylosed). However, the tooth very quickly died and had to be replaced with a pin. It was not something that would last forever and early in 2022 I started to get problems because it was deteriorating. I was getting puss and infection and needed numerous antibiotics (none of which worked). The pin eventually deteriorated from the inside to such an extent (due to all the infection as well) that it fell out later in 2022 and I was referred to private dental clinic to remove the old tooth root. This private dentist also tried to do a bone graft for preparation for a potential dental implant. Unfortunately, this failed over the course of a few months. Bits of the bone graft were coming out. The private dentist did everything he could to give me the best outcome. He also kindly referred me (applied) to the Glasgow Dental Hospital.

When I was referred to the Glasgow Dental Hospital, I was so impressed by how friendly everyone was – the reception team included. I got fixed braces on my top and bottom teeth. One of the key reasons for this was to widen the gap where my missing front tooth was in order to fit in a tooth (bridge) which was the same size as my other front tooth. I also have a tooth in my lower teeth at the front that had erupted to fill the gap where my front tooth should have been because it did not grow and move as I grew. It stayed anchylosed in my jaw and did not move down when everything else did.

I cannot tell you how much this has changed my life and confidence. I have always been so embarrassed about my teeth, particularly my front tooth when it was a pin because it was really short. It was also an awful colour.

All the staff in the orthodontics department were really friendly and helped you relax.

I want to commend Dr Benington from the Dept of Orthodontics (Level 5, Glasgow Dental Hospital and School) and also Amy (the Orthodontic Therapist at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School). Dr Benington during my care went above and beyond the call of duty. For instance, during the time I was wearing braces, I had a flipper denture which had my missing front tooth in it. After wearing braces for some time, my flipper denture was becoming very loose and would often come out. Dr Benington cut out the front tooth from the flipper denture and attached the tooth to a bracket in my braces.

Everything was explained and I was never made to feel uncomfortable with asking questions or raising any concerns, etc.

I cannot thank Dr Benington, Amy, and the team enough for what they have done. It has been life changing for me after so many years of being embarrassed about my front tooth.