A mother in England whose teeth began falling out was so terrified of visiting the dentist that she superglued them back into her mouth.
According to reports, 48-year-old dog walker Angie Barlow spent a decade avoiding the dentist by using glue to put her teeth back in her mouth when they would fall out.
“I’ve always been scared of the dentist because my mum died at 34 from throat cancer,” Barlow said. “She had a tooth out, and that’s how they found she had cancer. That fear has always been in the back of my mind… you just get your mind set and you just think, you don’t go. You don’t make that phone call.” Barlow’s smoking habit is reportedly to blame for the dead teeth, and the gluing became so frequent that she began getting too embarrassed to be seen in public.
“I just feel so self-conscious that I don’t go anywhere really,” she said. “They’d be like, nudge, nudge, look at her, you know. Even in front of my son I’m embarrassed to sit and have a conversation with him.”
Barlow eventually decided that enough was enough, and opted to get surgery to replace the teeth and rebuild her smile.
“’It’s probably one of the worst cases that I’ve seen and certainly one of the worse cases of desperation, to superglue a tooth back in the mouth,” Dr. Serpil Djemal said.
The operation included the extraction of 11 of Barlow’s top teeth. Six screws were installed in her jaw that housed 12 new teeth. Barlow, who reportedly spent her life savings on the surgery, said her confidence boosted greatly as a result of finally taking the plunge and getting the procedure.
“Wonderful isn’t it,” she said. “I feel amazing, and there’s no hands over my mouth or embarrassment, and, the difference people have said in me, noticed in me, my friends, things like that, they’re just like, oh my God, you’re more outgoing.”