It took me a lot of years to be okay with smiling despite this . I came to realize that while everyone notices , most people are kind enough not to bring it to attention , because I have other strong character qualities that come through despite it . Dental work here is pretty expensive . I ' m in America and we still don ' t have any true universal healthcare , but most of this damage happened before the ACA was put into place anyway . I had a tooth that I had broken when I was in college , and it took me two years to be able to get it taken out , and that was only $ 60 out of pocket . I saw a dentist earlier this year , again out of pocket , and all the work I have to get done was estimated roughly ~$ 1500 . A root canal is about $ 600 and I need two done . Possibly three if the one in the front of my mouth gets any worse . Unfortunately I moved before I started getting work done at that dentist , and moved to a state where the cost of living is significantly higher . This is why I ' m waiting until I am on the company insurance to do it , because they do full coverage up to $ 1 kyear and I can space out the work enough to do what I need to do . I have to wait until February for that .