Hello! If you’re reading this, you probably have a front tooth. If not, welcome to the club!

Today, I am twenty years old (currently going through a “omg I’m not a teenager anymore” life crisis, don’t ask) and I’m missing my front right tooth. About six years ago when I was fourteen in seventh grade, my mom totaled her car with me in the backseat...not wearing a seatbelt. It all happened in roughly five seconds, but I still vividly remember the feeling of warm blood seeping from my mouth and an aching pain in my neck.

My tooth had disconnected from the root, so it was kind of just hanging on by a thread by the time I got to the dentist, and they pretty much told me that the tooth is six feet under in the ground-dead, no chance of life. It was a huge mess because since I hadn’t stopped growing yet, a dental implant wasn’t a choice until my jaw stopped developing (roughly at about nineteen years of age). Anyways, I’ve had a root canal, a tooth extract, a Mairlyn Bridge, and a temporary prosthetic tooth surgery. There are certainly more procedures I’m forgetting in between those surgeries.

I’ll be getting my dental implant soon, but I chose to do Invisalign beforehand to perfect a straight smile since Invisalign can’t be done post-implant, but we’re almost there after six years!

All this to say, losing my front tooth helped define the person I am today in more ways than one. No, I never flat out walked with a gap in my smile line, but I’ve had to avoid biting into food with my fake front tooth for six years, I’ve had to endure dentists trying their best to keep a temporary tooth, and I’ve had to withstand countless surgeries for it.

It is not an experience I would’ve chosen, but it is one that made me into a humble person, a person who isn’t vain, and a person who doesn’t make appearances a focal point of importance. For a long time, I was terrified of sharing my smile from my insecurity, but now I realize that it was never as serious as seventh grade-me felt it was. If anything, the real hardship was how expensive dentistry is (thanks, dad)!

Currently, I’m a student at the University of Georgia, my dream school. I finished my first semester with two A-’s and three A’s, and I have enjoyed every second of it so far. So no, the world did not end when I lost a front tooth.