When you think of the beauty industry, you picture an individual who always look their best. Hair always in place, makeup on point, and dressed very nice and trendy! Its apart of this world, you like to look your very best because it represents who you are. Imagine being apart of this industry and one of the most important things you need isn’t presentable in your eyes. The one thing you need to be able to speak to folks confidently, record a video, or even take a BOMB picture isn’t perfect! Its one of those things that haunts you constantly from fear of others noticing and being talked about because of it.

Now, if you haven’t figured it out yet, that thing I’m speaking about is my smile. My smileeeeee! My smile, my precious beautiful smile took a horrible change a few years ago. I remember it perfectly, I was on my lunch break and I was eating some nachos and out of nowhere my tooth broke in half ( a front side tooth by the way). I was horrified, I rushed to the dentist and the price to replace the tooth (couldn’t be repaired) was wayyyyy more than I could afford. Not knowing what to do, I stopped worrying about it and after that day I stopped smiling. I sometimes sit back and think girllllll, why didn’t you go into debt or something? I honestly can’t remember how much it cost now but if I could do it all over again, I’d definitely sell one of my kids to fix it (just kidding) *inserts side eye emoji* LOL!!!!

Anyways, over the next years my teeth kept getting worse. The crazy thing is, it was only my top teeth that kept getting worse. I finally went to the dentist and started working on them and it was A LOT OF MONEY!!!! I was confident that I would be able to see the procedures through to restore my smile and then I lost my insurance (which it didn’t cover much due to the extensive work I needed but covered enough). I got most of the work done and was stuck with a temporary bridge until I could get the permanent bridge completed (basically I needed the rest of the money to get the permanent). If you know anything about temporary work its not the best, so I still couldn’t smile.

To cut this story short because I didn’t realize it would be this long. LOL! I went another year without my smile, which makes a total of 6 years not being able to smile, laugh without putting my hand over my mouth, barely wanting to talk to people from fear of them noticing. It was a horrible 6 years but I never told a soul. Anyways fast forward to about 2 months ago and I am proud to say I HAVE MY SMILEEEE BACK!!!!! The joy and happiness I have now, is out of this world!!!! I actually cant stay out of the mirror or taking pictures. Crazy thing about having my smile back is its still kind of awkward and weird for me to laugh, smile and talk publicly because I went so long not being able to do it. Day by day I’m getting better tho!!!!

Never take your smile for granted and NEVER judge anyone whose teeth aren’t up to par. Its not always from drug use and lack of care. I never was the type to publicly make fun of people but in my mind I would have negative thoughts about folks who teeth were challenged. Nonetheless, I’ve learned to never ever judge anyone because it can easily be you.

Always smile! P.S here is a pic of me smiling AGAIN!!!! ~XOXO JADA

Honorary mention: Dr Loray Spencer at A Healthy Smile PA in Rock Hill, SC