Sunshine Girl by Julianna Margulies

Author:Julianna Margulies [Margulies, Julianna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

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About halfway through my first semester my fake tooth from my bike riding accident began to bother me. It had been four years since my father’s dentist had seen me, sending me out of his office with a fake tooth that never fit properly in my mouth, a little darker than the rest of my teeth and leaving a gap where once there was none. The bonding he had adhered to my chipped teeth was always falling off. I shoved them back on, once even trying to attach the bonding to my teeth with Krazy Glue. My mouth had been a constant source of discomfort since the accident. I developed a habit of putting my hand in front of my face to hide the ugly gap and discolored tooth when I smiled or laughed. I got used to it; it was better than not having a tooth at all. But now it was bothering me, and when what began as a slight throb turned into a painful ache, I knew I needed to have it looked at.

I couldn’t remember the name of my father’s dentist, and for some reason, probably because phone calls abroad were so expensive, I didn’t call my father to ask. Instead I took out the yellow pages. I remembered that he was located on Central Park South and he had a Jewish name. Much to my surprise when I looked for a Jewish sounding dentist on Central Park South, I found about five hundred listed. I scanned the names and picked out three of them randomly. I made appointments and took the train into the city. None of them turned out to be my father’s dentist. I went to the first appointment, and after looking at my mouth briefly, the dentist told me the only way he could fix the tooth was to replace eight of my front teeth with new caps. This would cost upwards of ten thousand dollars. I went to the second dentist, who told me the same thing. By the time I walked into the third and last appointment, I was on the edge of hysteria. I won’t be able to act if I can’t open my mouth. I’ll never be able to pay for new teeth. I like my other teeth, I only want one new tooth! What am I going to do?

I waited to be called into the examination room, swallowing the emotion that was bubbling under the surface. Finally my name was called. A kind man with a trimmed beard sat down next to me. He asked me what the problem was and I told him the whole story, about the accident, how the tooth was never fixed properly, how I had fallen in love with acting at school and needed to fix the bad tooth. He gently asked me to open my mouth and took a good long look inside.

“Well, you have naturally beautiful teeth. It’s going to take a little time, but I

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