KENTWOOD, Mich. — A mother of four from Wayland received life-changing surgery on Monday.
Jennifer Vanderschuur was chosen out of hundreds of applicants to receive a smile makeover in November at Advanced Oral Surgery and Dental Impact Studio. It’s the second year the office has run the program.
Vanderschuur said her body wasn’t absorbing enough calcium when she was pregnant, which led to her teeth cracking or breaking and becoming sensitive.
The dental issues have caused her problems with eating and stopped her from smiling and laughing.
"I like to smile and laugh with people so I'm guaranteeing that will come back, with this I've been depressed, so I don't smile or laugh as often as I'd like to, and also in the future me and my fiancé are planning on getting married,” she said. “It's just, he needs dental work too, it's just a matter of getting everything situated and making us both smile ready for that big day.”
Vanderschuur was going to see an oral surgeon closer to her home in Wayland but saw Dr. Mark Jesin’s program for a new smile and took a chance.
Jesin and his team selected her out of a pool of around 500 applicants to give her a brand-new smile at no cost to her.
“She's just very deserving, and she's getting married in the coming year, so we were very excited for her to be the recipient here, were excited to give her a brand-new smile, she'll wake up with teeth,” Jesin said. “Basically, if she bites into something, a tooth breaks off, and she's been very careful within the last year trying to preserve the teeth that she has, so we’re excited that she'll be able to eat and chew and smile the way that she wants.”
