During his first visit to Community Dental, James Cain
looked down a lot and spoke very little.
He wouldn’t meet our eyes and we never saw him smile. Just 25 years old, James had already seen too
many of life’s challenges. His family
struggled financially and his father was severely disabled. James had focused for years on helping his
mother care for his father, deferring his own education and career plans so he
could help at home. He hadn’t thought at
all about his health, least of all his dental health. When we first saw him in 2012, he had so much
dental disease that we had to extract 15 of his teeth and fill many more.
The process took months.
Because James was not working, and too self-conscious about his
appearance to go to a job interview, his mother helped him with the cost of his
care. At first, James didn’t want to
have the work done, but his mom convinced him.
She knew the difference having dentures would make first hand. We’d completed a set for her earlier in the
year.
Finally in March, James received two partial dentures. On April, his birthday, he had his last
adjustment. That was when he let us take
pictures—and we saw the first shy smile.
James told us how excited he was to get out there and get a job. “I won’t be embarrassed to talk to people any
more,” he told us. As James was leaving,
another young patient, herself only 27, was preparing to be fitted for
dentures. She asked if she could see
James’ teeth and he obliged. James’
beautiful new smile and enthusiasm were contagious and she told Dr. Barroso, “I
can’t wait to have my smile back.”
Too many adults still come to us at a surprisingly young age
needing dental extractions and partial or full dentures. While we can restore their smiles and
confidence, we look forward to the day when all of our patients come to us
before such radical care is needed.
