New digital dentures: ‘I love taking selfies now’
These days, just about anything can bring a smile to Laurie Lewicki’s face.
For years, Lewicki was hesitant to break out in a ear-to-ear grin despite a vibrant personality that lends itself to smiles and laughter.
An old, poor-fitting and damaged set of dentures almost always held her back.
Lewicki would often cover her mouth with a hand so others couldn’t see the bad shape her teeth were in.
When she bit into a chocolate bar last Halloween, her upper plate cracked completely in half.
Struggling with other bills after a recent family move from Marathon, Ont., to Windsor, she glued the plate back together herself.
“I’m a waitress, I can’t be without my teeth,” she said of her doit-yourself fix.
Whenever she was working at Thanasi’s Greek Restaurant, Lewicki wouldn’t eat anything for fear of breaking her fragile dentures again.
“The only thing I’d have was the soup,” she said.
Friends encouraged her to try a crowdfunding campaign so she could raise the money for a proper fix and that led her to denturist Eric Kukucka and the team at The Denture Center on Lauzon Parkway.
“Initially, we didn’t know how long this journey was for Laurie,” said Kukucka, who got all the materials for new dentures donated by one of his suppliers.
Lewicki lost all her own teeth at just 26 years old after struggling with blood-related medical issues since she was a teenager.
A medication she was given had the horrible side effect of compromising her teeth to the point of extraction.
“I had all my teeth pulled in the hospital,” she said. “I bawled my eyes out. I had nightmares. Your smile is such a confidence thing.”
Her new upper denture was made using traditional methods, but Kukucka already has plans to replace it and her existing lower portion with a revolutionary new technique.
“I’ve already talked to the company and told them this lady is in need and they’re going to donate all the materials,” Kukucka said of Invoclar Vivadent, which just did a global launch of computergenerated dentures.
Kukucka has worked with the Liechtenstein company, among the world leaders in dental materials, for several years and he says computer-generated dentures are “perfectly symmetrical.”
The dentures last longer and fit better than those made by hand using traditional methods.
It’s just one more reason for a grateful Lewicki to smile.
“I love taking selfies now,” she said.
“And trust me, she takes a lot of them,” said her husband Pat.