Spencer Solves It: Dentist helps girl get her smile back

HOUSTON – When 8-year-old Emma Avila opens her mouth, there is something wrong, something that she absolutely hates, something that has driven her to the point where she doesn’t want to smile at all.

“I hate my smile,” Emma said with her lips pressed tightly together.

The fact is, Emma has had a big hole right in the middle of her smile.

Right there where her big front tooth should be, there is nothing but a big space.

That is because the tooth that should be there is actually growing straight out of her upper gum and on its way to poking its way through the front of her face, and the impact on her personality has been huge.

“She doesn’t smile anymore, she doesn’t smile for pictures and her self-confidence has decreased drastically,” her mother Ellen said.

For more than a year, Emma suffered from mouth pain and headaches and a botched orthodontics job, done by an orthodontist who charged her family thousands of dollars and not only never finished the job but made Emma’s problem worse.

“Please, I want you to please fix my teeth. I want to be fixed,” Emma said while fighting back tears.

After contacting more than 28 dentists asking for help and after being turned down by every one of them, Emma’s mother decided to call Spencer Solves it.

Right away, we contacted Dr. Amir Davoody with Greater Houston Orthodontics.

The doctor’s plan? To spread Emma’s existing teeth using braces, surgically free-up Emma’s trapped front tooth, and then using a small chain, gradually pull that trapped tooth out and down until it fills that big, empty space in Emma’s smile.

Finally, a year and a half, more than 15 office visits, surgery and a ton of complex dental work later, Emma’s fractured smile has been transformed by Davoody and we are about to show Emma her brand new smile for the very first time.

“It’s been a year and a half Emma and it’s time for you to see your new smile,” KPRC2's Bill Spencer said.

“It looks beautiful,” Emma said as she wiped away tears of joy.

As for her mother, Ellen Hernandez, “I just can’t say thank you enough. You have changed my daughter’s life, you really have and just the fact that she has become such a much different person now. This is life changing for her.”

“You really have changed my life and I’m really thankful. I have never been more happy in my life,” Emma said while, smiling, yes smiling, a big, broad smile.

We at KPRC2 and Spencer Solves It wants to send out a gigantic thank you to Davoody.

The work he did would normally have cost Emma’s family around $5,000, but Davoody generously agreed to do all of this work absolutely free.


About the Author:

Emmy-winning investigative reporter, insanely competitive tennis player, skier, weightlifter, crazy rock & roll drummer (John Bonham is my hero). Husband to Veronica and loving cat father to Bella and Meemo.