Brooke Callahan can’t stop smiling, and it’s giving her more confidence than ever before.
“I am more willing to smile showing my teeth now,” she said. “I don’t feel like, whenever I’m talking with somebody, they’re judging me based on my teeth.”
Brooke, a 27-year-old mother of two in Madison County, was insecure because of the gaps in her mouth, thinking other people would judge her negatively. When she and her family began the process with Habitat for Humanity of Madison & Clark Counties, the agency connected her to the Saint Joseph Berea Foundation, which helped to pay for the dental work Brooke needed to regain her smile and her confidence through the Henrietta Childs Fund that supports medical and dental needs of Berea and southern Madison County residents.
Her dental problems started when she was a teenager. She had multiple dental procedures, including removal of wisdom teeth, braces and extra teeth, one of which was growing in the roof of her mouth. Every time the orthodontists tightened the braces, they had to pull the canine tooth down. When her braces were removed, there was a gap in her teeth. She didn’t like the retainer they gave her to hide the gap, so she stopped wearing it.
Brooke went back and forth with confidence, wearing the retainer and not wearing it. Then she started to have more problems. Her teeth started breaking when she was pregnant with her daughter, now 7.