Woman forced to wear dentures after losing teeth gets permanent smile
Woman, 24, whose teeth began to ROT from a vomiting condition at age 19 proudly shows off stunning new smile after FINALLY getting a permanent new set of pearly whites – having been forced to wear dentures for years
- Natalie Lacasse, 24, lived without teeth for two years and wore dentures instead
- She suffered a minor car accident at 18 and had to take pain medication
- The medication gave her stomach ulcers and she vomited for months on end
A 24-year-old woman who was forced to wear dentures after she lost her teeth has finally gotten a permanent set of teeth.
Natalie Lacasse, from Vancouver, has been wearing dentures since the age of 19 – after a months-long vomiting condition sparked by pain medication caused her teeth to slowly rot and fall out.
After struggling with shame and embarrassment over her teeth – which she hid with dentures for years – Natalie has now finally had her smile restored after raising close to $10,000 online to fund a new permanent set of teeth.
‘I still have a long road ahead but after two very long years stuck without teeth, now finally having teeth again… is surreal,’ said the content creator.
Natalie Lacasse, 24, lived without teeth for two years and wore dentures instead. She has finally gotten a permanent set of teeth that have her smiling confidently
Despite the mental toll that having no teeth had on her, the Vancouver native was determined to normalize wearing it and posted her journey on TikTok
‘I still have a long road ahead but after two very long years stuck without teeth, now finally having teeth again… is surreal,’ said the content creator
‘It is so weird! I didn’t realize how big this was truly going to be for me.
‘The moment the mirror was handed to me [to look at the results], I saw myself with actual teeth.
‘As I sat in the chair and saw my new smile, the way they fit so well, it felt so crazy, I feel so confident.
‘I suppressed a lot of my situation over the years, after spending the first year with a denture depressed, crying every day.
‘I started to suppress and shrug it off, I didn’t realize the gravity of the last few years until I saw my smile again.’
Natalie’s struggles with her teeth began when she was just 18 years old and found herself involved in a minor car accident that required a prescription for pain relief medication.
However, the medication gave her stomach ulcers and caused her to vomit for months – which ultimately made her teeth turn brittle and rot.
Natalie first found out she had stomach ulcers a few months after the crash, which happened in February 2017, and was immediately told to stop taking the medication she had been prescribed.
‘They said to stop as it can have the side effect of stomach ulcers based on usage and dosage,’ she said.
However, that didn’t stop the vomiting.
Without her dentures (L) Natalie didn’t have any top teeth. Now with her permanent teeth (R) she can’t help but show off her huge smile and new-found confidence
‘I started to suppress and shrug it off, I didn’t realize the gravity of the last few years until I saw my smile again,’ said Natalie when recalling her teeth journey
‘By June the vomiting was so frequent, I had travel-sized toothbrushes and toothpaste in my car and at work so I could brush after being sick,’ she recalled.
Natalie then started vomiting up blood.
‘That was when I realized I could no longer hide from doctors, and we found out the severity of my stomach ulcers was much worse than we thought,’ she said.
‘They found a tear in my esophagus from getting sick so much, and ulcers lining my stomach, my digestive health was a wreck.
‘To cure it I was put on 18 medications a day to heal and fix my stomach.’
By October, she realized there was also something wrong with her teeth.
‘My teeth were becoming almost transparent – they were very thin and brittle,’ Natalie said.
‘Then one day I went to take a sip out of my coffee mug but bumped it into my upper lip, which caused my front tooth to break and fall out of my mouth.
‘This is when I realized the state of my teeth wasn’t just transparently thin, they lost all the enamel.
‘I suppressed a lot of my situation over the years, after spending the first year with a denture depressed, crying every day,’ she recalled
Natalie openly shared her teeth journey online and grew a following of 19,500 followers on TikTok, and was able to raise $9,909 for a set of permanent teeth thanks to her GoFundMe
‘I rushed to the dentist and found out the effects of brushing my teeth after being sick.
‘It turns out it isn’t the right thing to do, and I was brushing stomach acid and vomit into my teeth.
‘I completely obliterated all the enamel from brushing after being sick.’
Aged just 19, the only option was for the teen to have them taken out.
Due to the price of the procedure, Natalie could only remove a few teeth at a time.
By 23, half her teeth were missing, including the entire front row.
‘I wanted to act like nothing was going on, and nothing happened, it was embarrassing for me and something I was ashamed of,’ she said.
‘It made my confidence go out the window so I tried to hide away, thinking no one needs to know.
‘It was as if I had an empty mouth.’
Natalie and her now-fiancé are all smiles while cuddling with their fuzzy cat
Natalie tried getting dentures in 2021, but because of her financial situation, she couldn’t afford a good-quality pair.
‘My denture was so poorly made, it was unwearable,’ she said.
‘I was stuck with no upper teeth and 11 broken ones.
‘I also had decayed lower teeth and nerve damage.’
Besides dealing with the struggles of having no teeth, Natalie was simultaneously learning to speak again by watching hundreds of videos on speech impediments.
Her biggest obstacle was her tongue and she practiced reading books out loud in her kitchen until she eventually got the hang of it.
In January 2023, she looked into specialist dentures, which are considered permanent artificial teeth, and was told it would cost $10,000, so she set up a GoFundMe to finance her new chompers.
After getting dentures, Natalie began documenting her struggles in a candid series of videos on TikTok, where she ultimately amassed close to 20,000 followers – who then helped her to raise $9,909 for a set of permanent teeth via a GoFundMe page.
By August, the funds were in, and she had both upper and lower dentures put in.
Now, Natalie is an advocate and content creator, and shares her journey online in hopes of helping others.
One recent TikTok post gathered more than 65,800 views, and was captioned: ‘YALLLL I was told to let the dentist open it tomorrow for sterilization purposes.’
The video revealed her zooming in on the bag containing her old dentures.
The clip received thousands of likes, as well as plenty of comments from baffled users.
Natalie added: ‘If I could give any advice when it comes to dental health and especially saving your smile, don’t hesitate or be scared to get multiple opinions’
One recent TikTok post gathered more than 65,800 views, lots of feedback and was captioned: ‘YALLLL I was told to let the dentist open it tomorrow for sterilization purposes’
One person said: ‘Omg omg omg I’m so excited omg.’
‘Oh I can’t wait to see,’ another added.
‘Ahhh tomorrow is the big day!’ a third person wrote, while someone else said: ‘I would’ve done it.’
‘Sorry, my dog must of opened it,’ one user joked.
Natalie added: ‘If I could give any advice when it comes to dental health and especially saving your smile, don’t hesitate or be scared to get multiple opinions!
‘The dentistry industry unfortunately can be a cash grab, and although they may give you everything you want to hear – not all dental specialists are in the industry for the right reasons.
‘Also remember that no matter what the circumstances, finding humor and positivity in any situation can make difficult times a whole lot easier to deal with and process.
‘Life is too short to be getting upset over things we can’t control.’
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