|
Great News! MEDI-CAL ADULTS CAN STILL GET SOME DENTAL SERVICES* UNDER THE DENTI-CAL PROGRAM! |
|
|
National City dentist helps teen brace for brighter future
Ivy Blair used to be so self-conscious about her smile that she refused to show it. In an interview at a National City restaurant, the 16-year-old demonstrates the serious expression that once substituted for a grin.
“Sometimes I’d want to smile but I knew my teeth weren’t straight, and it would look weird, so I was like this,” Ivy said, pursing her lips in an unconvincing frown.
Ivy, who lives with a foster family in Chula Vista, couldn’t user her real name because her biological parents might still be looking for her, years after being removed from their home.
Ivy might still be stifling her smiles if it wasn’t for a gift from a National City orthodontic company. After a letter from Ivy’s mentor in the Big Sister program, Western Dental donated the more than $8,000 worth of orthodontic work that has allowed Ivy to smile again.
Bill Krenn, a spokesperson for Western Dental, said the organization was happy to help out when approached. He said that the company occasionally donates treatment to deserving recipients and that Ivy, with the adversity she had overcome, seemed like a good candidate.
“The request for treatment eventually found its way to the president of Western Dental who thought it would be a nice thing to do,” said Krenn.
Of course, every blessing is a mixed one, especially for a teenager. Ivy’s thrilled to know that her teeth will be corrected to perfection, but in the meantime, she wishes the braces didn’t trap so much food. But such is life. And Ivy has a knack for focusing on the bright side. The little plastic anchors on her teeth can be changed at every visit, and best of all, color coordinated.
“I surprise her (my grandmother) sometimes with crazy colors, bright colors, like totally random colors,” said Ivy. Recently Ivy was getting in the Halloween spirit, with seasonally appropriate orange and black.
In some ways the braces are just a small part of the changes in Ivy’s life over the past few years. The high school junior had a chaotic early childhood, attending so many different schools that she “lost count.”
Both she and her grandmother, related by marriage, were vague about what exactly went so wrong in the home, saying simply that Ivy’s parents were irresponsible and unable to care for her properly. As her parents became more and more unreliable, Ivy became the de facto parent for her younger siblings. Before she was 12 years old, Ivy had more responsibilities than most kids her age.
Her parent’s problems culminated in a messy divorce and Ivy was taken into foster care, with the help of a grandmother.
But even with the new braces, Ivy’s problems weren’t over yet. She smiled sheepishly when admitting that she missed 211 classes in a single school year in middle school. She has since gotten back on track. Ivy is looking forward to college after graduation in 2010 and, of course, smiling more.