At Smile Solutions, giving back to our community is extremely important to us.
Each year Smile Solutions donates $100,000 of dental services to the homeless through a wonderful initiative called Magpies Nest, administered by the Salvation Army.
We were also recently approached by Woman’s Day magazine to assist in a very worthy cause – helping to rebuild the smile of courageous Deanne Bridgland, who sustained injuries which resulted in missing teeth and who shared her painful story to help other Australian women break free from domestic violence.
Woman’s Day asked us to share Deanne’s journey of her smile makeover.
Woman’s Day: How were Deanne’s teeth when you met her?
Broken down, sore and sorry.
What problems were they causing?
Deanne was terribly self-conscious about the appearance of her smile, and years of chronic dental pain was affecting her whole outlook on life.
What did you have to do?
Inspire and motivate her to love her smile again. This was done in two phases. Firstly, by removing the worst teeth suffering infections and abscesses, and then restoring all of the salvageable teeth with white resin fillings.
How long did this take?
Around two months of weekly appointments.
Is this one of the worst cases you have seen?
Certainly the combination of the physical dental trauma, and the inevitable subsequent neglect of her teeth had put her in a very unenviable position.
How much would this have cost?
In the order of $8,000, with both cosmetic dentists and highly skilled specialists within Smile Solutions caring for Deanne.
How can having nice teeth improve a person?
To begin with, a healthy smile can help you to feel confident in social and work settings. Functional healthy teeth also assist your overall wellbeing both physically and emotionally.
There is very little in life that an amazing smile can’t fix, but maybe I am just biased…
Deanne happily says the work the Smile Solutions team have done has changed her life forever.
“It means everything to me,” says Deanne. “I don’t have to be embarrassed, I can eat a steak, and there is no pain. I can’t even explain how good it feels… it’s amazing.”