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Mocked For Having 'Shark Teeth,' Woman Refuses To Smile For More Than A Decade. Now She Can't Stop!

Mocked For Having

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A San Jose woman born with a rare condition that left her with “shark teeth” is finally smiling for the first time in 10 years.

According to The Mirror, 21-year-old Jenna Pfaff has had problems with her teeth for as long as she can remember.

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"I didn't want to go to school because of my teeth and wore braces as a lot of them came through in the wrong direction - it was like the braces were hiding my teeth,” Jenna said. "In all my school pictures, I had my mouth closed and you could tell I wasn't happy, I would do a lot of things to divert attention from my mouth."

Jenna’s teeth, which have a naturally triangular shape, are reportedly the result of ectodermal dysplasia, a series of genetic disorders that affect the bones, teeth, hair, and more.

Growing up, Jenna was constantly mocked for her “messed up teeth,” which many of her cruel classmates called “shark teeth.”

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"Growing up, my teeth weren't like other kids, I had pointy teeth that were sharp, very fragile and triangular like shark's teeth,” Jenna said. "I was so embarrassed I suffered with anxiety over them, all the way through school I was bullied for having bad teeth and even started losing healthy teeth because of the condition.”

"People would say things like I had 'messed up teeth' and I was known as the girl with the 'jacked up mouth,’” she added. "I got used to not showing my teeth at all, I trained myself to never smile or laugh with an open mouth and generally trained my lips to cover them.”

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In her teens, Jenna’s teeth suddenly began breaking and falling apart, and eventually, she stopped smiling altogether.

"Prior to surgery they would wiggle and move even when I was brushing my teeth leading to one falling out, then I lost another while eating a banana because they were so fragile,” she said.

Desperate to have “normal” teeth, Jenna wanted nothing more than to have surgery to correct her smile.

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Finally, after years of being mocked and bullied, Jenna raised enough money to have permanent dentures put in.

"If I didn't have surgery all my teeth would have fallen out, I had a lot of dead teeth in my mouth just waiting to break or snap off,” she revealed.

Now that she’s finally had her $25,000 surgery, Jenna can’t stop smiling!

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"Last month, I've not got my first set of temporary teeth, which I'll have for four months up to two years while I fundraise for permanent ones,” the San Jose woman native said. "I'm starting to get used to having teeth again now, I find myself smiling with my mouth open without realising it for first the first time in over ten years.”

"It's been such a long time since I've smiled with my teeth that I don't know properly how to do it so I have to practice in the bathroom making funny faces,” she added. "I'm so grateful this happened to me, it's definitely such a positive thing, I'm much less self-conscious now that my teeth are more realistic than before."

 

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