Brandon Alvarado

Profesor Encinias

CAS 115

October 7, 2023

The Broken Tooth Tragedy of Graduation

Graduation, a time of celebration and reflection on one's years in high school. U

reminisce about all the times you got in trouble with your friends, how you skipped class, sports

and their highs and lows. It is what you have been working towards for 12 long years and it is

about to pay off, now you just get to sit back and relax. I however was not able to relax during

my last weeks of high school. Why you may ask because the week prior to graduation the

unthinkable happened, I broke one of my two front teeth. I had never even broken a bone before,

much less a tooth so I was in quite a shock when it happened. I was returning home from a

weekend of hanging out with my friends. We were trying to do that as much as possible, with the

school year winding down and some of us going to college. We didn't know when we would all

be able to get together like this again. I was at home relaxing and my cousin who lives next door

challenged me to a game of one on one. Whenever we play it gets competitive, like most families

I assume, however this time we competed too much. I chose to dive for the ball and just my luck

slipped and fell face first into the concrete pavement, my hands were still on the ball so I

couldn’t brace my fall. I first thought, “No way this is happening right now” “ Why now, why

right before one of the most important events of my life”. I was utterly shocked, then it turned

into how can I fix the problem as soon as possible. I skipped school the next day and then went

to my local physician because I remembered that they also check your teeth as well. They

couldn’t help me there because they told me I required a root canal and crown. They did however
show me a list of local dentists that could help me. I spent the next few hours looking for just the

right one because not all of them were covered by my insurance. After much trial and error I

found one just a few blocks from my house. I booked an appointment with them that same week,

however it would be a couple days before then. However the appointment was on my last day of

high school, I would miss one of the last events before graduation, senior send off. I

contemplated whether or not to go to school that day and take the chance that I would miss the

appointment and look like a fool in my graduation photos. I decided against it, I was bummed at

first, but I knew I had made the right decision. I went to school showing off my teeth like some

carnival attraction, counting the days until my appointment. It was weird to eat at first, I ate

mostly through my back teeth which was uncomfortable. Then came the day of the appointment,

they first numbed the area with this gel, then inserted a huge needle directly into my gum line. I

could feel under my skin getting closer and closer to my nose, one of the few times I teared up at

the doctors or a dentist. They shaved down my tooth and gave me a temporary patch, I would

have to come back to get the real replacement. All in all the silver lining to all this is that it was a

really good experience that kicked me into being more responsible and careful of my actions. I

was moving out for college and this was a good lesson to learn. Also it got me to take better care

of my oral hygiene, which is in the best place it has been in years. Down below you can see some

pictures of when I went back in the summer to finish the procedure and get the fake tooth that I

still have today.