HOUSTON – Emma Avila, who is just 8 years old, has changed dramatically over the past couple of years.
According to her mother, she doesn’t laugh anymore, or smile, as she used to, or even interact with her friends the way she used to, all because of her fractured smile.
Emma has an embedded tooth that, if left untreated, will continue growing straight out of the front of her face and begin poking right out of the top of her lip, just below her nose.
“My little girl doesn’t smile anymore. She doesn’t smile for pictures. Her self-confidence has decreased drastically. She is just not the same,” Ellen Hernandez said.
For over a year, Emma has been suffering from mouth pain, headaches and a botched orthodontic procedure by a Houston orthodontist who charged her parents for the failed work. She has braces on her teeth that cause pain, but are not doing anything to help with her condition.
Since the botched procedure, Emma’s mother has gone to 28 different dentists in the area, looking for help in fixing her daughter’s mouth, but she said everyone she went to said no. They did not want to start treatment on a little girl who had already started treatment with someone else.
“Every one of them said no. They didn’t want to take transfer patients. 'We don’t trust orthodontic parts that are old and outdated, parts that don’t fit and work that we know nothing about,'” Hernandez said.
With nowhere else to turn, Emma and her mother contacted Spencer Solves It.
“I want you to please fix my teeth. I want to be fixed,” Emma told Channel 2 News, with tears in her small, swollen eyes.
Spencer Solves It took Emma to one of Houston’s highest-rated orthodontists, Dr. Amir Davoody, of Greater Houston Orthodontics.
Davoody begins what will be at least eight to 10 months of intricate dental work to fix Emma’s mouth.
The plan is to spread Emma’s teeth with new braces.
Then, using a small chain, Davoody will pull the protruding tooth down from the top of Emma’s gumline until it completely fills the huge space in her smile.
Now, Emma is on her way to a beautiful, healthy smile and her mother is almost without words.
“It’s everything for her. She hasn’t been happy for the longest time. You have changed her future, so thank you for everything. I so appreciate it. Thank you,” Hernandez said.