Smile Makeover Contest
I entered Morgan in the smile make over because a confident smile can open so many doors and her smile was killing her confidence. You can't face the world with a confident smile when you lack the confidence to show your teeth. In my experience with Dr. Edwards and the staff there, I knew that Morgan would be getting the best care and be given the opportunity to put her best foot (and smile) forward.
What do you hope she will get out of this makeover?
I hope that she'll feel more confident about herself, of course. But I also hope that through her experience she'll see what an impact you can make on someone's life by being giving of yourself. Dr. Edwards changes hundreds of smiles a week, but by simply providing those services to my sister free of cost, he's not just changing a smile, he's changing a life. And I hope that whatever Morgan's future holds, every time she sees her smile in the mirror or a photo, she'll look back on her experience and do her part to pay it forward.
Social life is based on appearance and works its way inward from there...it's true for adults, but especially for teenagers. I don't know anyone who would want to go back and live those awkward years again, regardless of how popular, pretty, smart, athletic, etc. they were. Whether it's acne or weight issues or your hairstyle, feeling good about yourself as a teen hinges solely on what you see when you look in a mirror. For Morgan, all she saw was an embarrassing, crooked set of teeth and there was nothing she could do about it and her self confidence plummeted. Her smile isn't perfect yet, but just having the braces on her teeth, knowing that her problem is being fixed...I already see her becoming more confident, smiling more, taking more pride in her appearance. It's amazing what a difference a smile makes!
Meet my baby sister, Morgan (aka, Morgy Porgy. She loves being called that...really...what 17 year old wouldn't?!)
After scouring what seemed like thousands of photos on her facebook page, I finally came across one of her (kind of) showing her teeth. Unfortunately, pictures of her actually smiling are very rare. I had Morgan send me the attached close-up of her teeth, only telling her that I was going to get an opinion from my new dentist on treatment options for her, because I didn't want her to get her hopes up over a contest. She sent the picture to my cell phone with the message simply reading "disgusting." As you can clearly see from the photos, Morgan's teeth are a mess and have made a tooth-baring grin from her as elusive as Bigfoot or The Loch Ness Monster.
I have spent countless hours consoling an embarrassed, hurt and self-conscious teenager, who can't get past her imperfect smile and the teasing of other kids to see how beautiful she really is. It seems like such an easy fix, right? Glue some brackets and wires on that kid's teeth and (POOF!) a couple years later she's flashing those pearly whites all over town! Unfortunately, it's not that simple for Morgan. Her parents, my mom & step-dad, sometimes work multiple jobs at a time to pay the bills. Orthodontia isn't in their vocabulary because there's no room for it in their budget.
I believe that Morgan deserves to feel as beautiful as I know she is, inside and out. When she was in second grade, her school was doing a fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. The fundraiser just happened to fall around the time of her 7th birthday and after receiving birthday cards with cash in them, Morgan told my mom that she wanted to take her birthday money to school to donate to the sick kids. Several years later, during a school fundraiser where kids earned prizes based on their sales, a classmate of Morgan's was telling her how much she loved a particular prize, a Tweety Bird clock, but could never sell enough to get it because her mom couldn't sell things at work. When sales were over and prizes came in, Morgan came home on the bus with her prize. She sat at the kitchen table just looking at it, for what (in kid time) seemed like hours. After a while she got some paper and crayons and was coloring at the table. She folded up a piece of paper, put it with her prize and took it to my mom and told her that she wanted to give her prize, a Tweety Bird clock, and the card she made to Hailey, her friend at school.
Those are just a couple of stories that immediately come to mind when I think about the kind of person that Morgan is. She's sweet and caring and very giving of herself. She'll be graduating high school next year and I would love nothing more than for her to be able to go confidently, with a tooth-baring grin, into the next chapter of her life...
Win or lose, what you're doing to change someone's smile is an amazing gesture. Thanks for considering my baby sister!
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