Part 4

The Power of a Smile to Change Lives:  Denny’s Story Part 4

Denny had watched with suspicion, the week before, as Dr. Dana had crafted what she called a “template” for his upper denture.  To him it didn’t look like much, just a clutter of plastic, wax, and some rubbery material, but somehow when she put it in his mouth he could tell she was seeing much more than a mouth full of wax.  Sometimes she frowned while studying the result. Sometimes she smiled to herself when her changes were just right.  Dr. Dana built up, shaped, melted, and carved on her contraption, fine tuning every last contour. She didn't  stop until she was pleased with the careful design.  Denny was unsure what the fuss was all about. Never before had this been done. His first set of dentures were made with nothing more than an impression.  Here he watched as over the next hour and a half something was created and designed with care.  Even though Denny didn’t have the imagination to see what on earth she was doing, he could tell it took a craftsman to do it.  By watching her eyes, he could tell when the result was just right. It seemed she was seeing the raw materials becoming something far greater.

Today Denny was returning to the office with his wife for the Try-In appointment.  This would give him a chance to see what his new smile would look like before it was finalized.  He wasn’t sure if he was excited, but he was certainly curious to see what Dr. Dana had fashioned out of her modern art project.  More than anything, he was a little apprehensive of what the result would be, worried that he’d end up looking like Mr. Ed.

As was her custom, his wife Paula struck up an easy conversation with the girls in the office.  While they chatted away, he learned that the try-in denture was made with the actual denture teeth placed in wax to hold them in place.  Any technical and artistic changes would be made by the doctor, and when she was satisfied, she would let him and his wife take a long look.  

Again he watched suspiciously as Dr. Dana made a sketching of his teeth on a pad of paper which she called her “notes”, and proceeded to fill up the page with strange symbols and scratch marks.  She would look at his mouth closed, at rest, talking, smiling and laughing each in turn, making more unintelligible markings on her paper.  He felt somewhat self conscious having her stare at him, but that was what he was there to do.  It felt better having his wife next to him for emotional back up, and to help carry on the conversation for him.

Twice the doctor took his try-in denture back to the on-site lab to make changes while he waited.  She seemed engrossed in what she was doing.  Not allowed to look in the mirror yet, all Denny could tell was that his mouth felt full of wax.  If feeling was any indication of what he looked like, he was now sure that he resembled Mr. Ed.

Soon he saw the doctor’s smile and knew she was satisfied with her creation.  Placing Denny before the portrait camera, she snapped his photos and printed them on the spot to compare them - “before and after” style.    He noticed that Paula looked pleased.  Really skeptical about what he was going to see in the photos, Denny was not terribly excited to look at himself.  He had been an ugly, grouchy old man for too long.  Who wanted to look at that?

As Dr. Dana showed the two photos to him she said, “So if I were to tell you that these were pictures of a father and his son, how much younger do you think the son is?”

“Twenty years, easily,” he snapped without a thought.  His brain took a moment to take in the information.  “Wait a minute, that’s me - I look twenty years younger.  What the blazes?”  

Paula started to giggle with glee.

Denny’s Story Part 3 Denny’s Story Part 5