One Little X Ray. Biopsy, Surgery, Cancer

In the book Smile there was a character named Raina Telgemeler, she had to get braces. Raina thought that she didn’t need to get braces because her teeth looked fine. When she got braces she had felt insecure because of the way she looked, she thought that everyone will make fun of her and tease her. In the end when she got her braces taken off she felt more confident than ever. I can relate to that because when I had gotten braces I never wanted to smile for anything. I was self conscious that I had food stuck in it or just in general I felt different because I got my braces on at such an early age. After I had gotten it taken off I was beyond happy because it felt like my confidence had just went up so much. Getting braces is something that

It seemed like everyone had their golden ticket to jump right on the train. I began to seak out my own ticket and stumbed upon a little orthodontist’s office in the middle of a strip mall. I plugged the phone number into my phone contacts and begged my mom to call them. A few days later I found myself immersed in the world of Stoll Orthodontics, filled with the nicest people and the coolest prizes a twelve year old could imagine. I turned my ticket in as fast as I could and was soon on my own trek across the clumsy years of middle school into the promise land. The two-year journey was tedious, filled with bracket wax and online contests. Although they were some of the silliest and most awkward years of my life, they were some that I look back on with the most nostalgia. When the train was coming to a hault and I had my final tweeks and rubber band chains, I felt apprehensive about whether I was ready to get off the train. As many of you know, I came back on a weekly basis for over two months making sure everything was perfect and that everyone was sure that my journey must really come to a close. On February 20th, 2012, I flew off the train tracks a completely new person, unable to stop smiling just from the sheer joy. My smile was no longer a social construct or something to be ashamed of, but a part of me that I flash without a second

When I was but a boy, I had excelled in plenty of things in life. I had excelled both in the classroom and on the field. As well as maintaining an A average I held the title of star athlete in football, skating, and gymnastics. There was even talk about me continuing my educational career at Yale. However, once a damaging game of hockey occurred one winter knocking out most of my upper teeth, my life took an unexpected halt. For weeks, an ghastly pain resided in my jaw and false teeth were also being fitted.

My doctor explained that there wouldn’t be any way to know if the cyst was cancerous until she operated. This was another shock to me; I’d be going under the knife! That freaked me out! I had never needed surgery before so a variety of scenarios were zipping through my head. The only way the doctors could see if the cyst was cancerous was to get a sample which would happen during removal in surgery. My dad, unlike me, was keeping his composure pretty well. Without surprise, he immediately had questions.

“ Let me check some things out and we will go from there.” Doctor Phil took my blood pressure, heart rate, checked my ears, eyes, and mouth. “ Your breathing definitely does not sound right.” he assured me. “We are gonna get you in so you can have an x-ray done on your lungs.” We all walked

I thought that I was going to look so nerdy and out of place because most people get their braces earlier than eight grade. I remember thinking the whole time that I’m going to have them for senior pictures. After more appointments I found out that it would be about two and a half years, and a surgery to help the process. So I got the braces and they hurt so badly for about a week, and I just felt like a sore thumb. None of my friends had braces, and I thought they all had straight teeth, but a couple months after I got mine, a ton of my friends got them. That made me feel a lot better because I knew that they can’t make fun of me for it if they have them too. A while later I got oral surgery and that was a rough time for me, they had to cut a ton of my gums off, to help a baby tooth come down into the right spot, and they attached a chain to it which made it so hard for me to chew. Everything worked out fine, and my teeth keep getting

I was blubbering about how I was going to wear dentures the rest of my life, and how I was going to look so ugly without my front teeth. My grandparents kept trying to reassure me, but I wasn’t hearing any of it. I was a bit of a drama queen at that moment, but can you blame me? I mean I had perfectly straight teeth before this happened. Yet, here I was holding my front tooth in my hand. The other front tooth was hanging on my lip making me look like Nanny McPhee in the beginning of the movie. We tried as quickly as we could to get up those stairs and into the car.

In the eighth grade, I had a game for my travel soccer team, Pinecrest Premier. We were now playing our eighth vigorous game together. Standing tall in the center of the defense, blocking every ball sent from the other teams’ midfielders. Until, the striker on the other team pushed me to the floor with all his might. I fell in an awkward manner, on my side, and landed painfully on my shoulder. While falling, I felt like a rag doll, I had no control over my body I was just falling. Then, after what had seemed like a year in the air, I hit the hard dirt ground. When the contact was made, a noise that sounded like a car running over loads of sticks. One of the bones in my left shoulder had cracked, and it made the loudest noise. The pain worsened, it felt like a gunman had shot me.

Doctor McPherson called and said I would need surgery in 4 days, December 23rd , at Avera in Sioux Falls. So we get to the hospital on Monday and I go through all the pre surgery routines, changing into gowns, talking to doctors and getting the run down. Finally, the surgeon comes in and takes me back to the operating room, where he operates for four and a half hours. I sit in the recovery room for about 30 minutes and a nurse comes in to tell me I got eight screws with two large incisions and many stitches. After recovery, they take me to my original room where I was prescribed pain medication, from there we started our trip

Molly tugged on her olive green sweater, pulling at the sleeves with shaking fingers. She knew her tumour was classified as a rare case, since every specialist she saw had told her the exact same thing. But, every time someone told her how risky getting a surgery would be, Molly knew that there wasn’t any possible alternate outcome. That she would die a slow, and painful death, or possibly a peaceful one, under the influence of heavy sleeping medication as she dreamed herself a better

Recently I had my braces taken off and I believed that it would not make a major difference upon my life. When the braces were taken off my teeth I had to start wearing a retainer which made it nearly impossible to talk. On the positive side however, I was able to have straight teeth.

It was embarrassing and limited eating certain foods. During a consultation with an orthodontist, the price quoted to correct my teeth was too high for my parents, who at that time were financially unstable. The orthodontist would not budge on his price, and while we walked to the car, I felt hopeless. Fortunately my mother knew of another orthodontist. During the consolation my mother explained to him the financial hardships we faced. He immediately lowered the price by a thousand dollars and provided a flexible payment plan. As my mother held back tears, I sat quietly, feeling the weight lift off my shoulders. These personal experiences are what have led me to pursue dentistry as my field of

Patient: And, you know, just -- I think I would worry about it, that was -- that that’s like, another thought I had. You know, I think we always be thinking about it. You know, because I had the cysts before, right? And you know, just now, I want to say 15 years later, you know? And that’s why I don’t want to worry about it. That’s -- they’re coming off.

I went back to the waiting room and my mom scheduled the next appointment. While she was doing that, I realized that the braces didn’t hurt that much. We walked back to the car, and it was clear and sunny and there was a rainbow in the sky. We got in the car, and drove back home.

My name was finally called by the technician and she had the room and machine prepared for my procedure. I sat down and she started asking me several questions about my mammogram history. I am now getting scared because I had to tell her about the lump in my right breast explaining to her I was told it was nothing. She smiled and said she would take good care of me. The mammogram x-ray machine will take digital pictures which will offer a better view of each breast. The procedure began and the pain had to show on my face as I held my breath each time she had to take a photo. In fifteen minutes the procedure was over. I was sent back into the waiting room to be with my husband. Now we have to patiently wait for the radiologist to read the