For years, Chance Allen smiled with his mouth closed. When he did let one slip, his three-year-old daughter would look up at him and say the same thing every time: “Daddy, you got a boo-boo.” He knew she meant no harm. But every time she said it, it stung.
Chance is a deputy with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and a proud father of two girls. He’d spent the better part of a decade caught in a painful cycle. A tooth would start hurting. He’d get it treated. Dental insurance would run out. He’d wait until the following year. And by then, the problem had only gotten worse.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Chance and his wife Sarah had dental insurance, worked overtime hours, and genuinely wanted to fix the problem. But between mounting bills (including a week-long NICU stay for their youngest daughter) and a coverage plan that barely addressed one issue per year, the list of dental to-dos kept growing while Chance kept hurting.
“For the past four to five years, it’s always been one that hurts. And then you get that taken care of, insurance runs out, so then it’s like you wait till the next year, and then by that time it just keeps going and going.”
- Chance Allen
Everything changed when Sarah quietly entered Chance into Tuscarora Dental’s Smile Makeover Giveaway. In her nomination letter, she laid out not just the clinical picture (two teeth pulled in the past year, more still needed, chipped front teeth, pain while chewing, sensitivity to hot and cold) but the human one. She wrote about the man who greets his family with a huge smile every evening no matter how hard his day was, and who deserved to do so freely.
She also wrote about something Chance had carried long before the dental pain began. He’d had a stutter since childhood, one that speech therapy couldn’t resolve. It had quietly shaped his confidence for years. A flawless smile, Sarah hoped, would give him something solid to stand on.
Chance was selected as one of four finalists and invited in for an interview. He was soft-spoken but honest. When asked how a new smile would impact his life, he didn’t have to think long.
“It would be life-changing. No pain.”
- Chance Allen
What Chance didn’t know was that the decision had already been made. The moment he arrived for his appointment, the team at Tuscarora Dental quietly told Sarah he had won and asked her to keep a straight face for the rest of the visit. She held it together, barely.
The reveal came at the end of the appointment, after the team had walked Chance through a detailed look at what was actually going on in his mouth. What they found went deeper than cavities and chips. Chance had a jaw alignment condition called TMD that had been silently driving the destruction of his teeth for years. His lower jaw was compressed, which forced him to carry constant tension in the muscles of his face and neck. That tension caused his teeth to grind and fracture. It had also restricted his airway to nearly half the ideal measurement, putting him at risk for obstructive sleep apnea and other serious health concerns.
In other words, this wasn’t something Chance had done to himself. The team made that clear. And then they told him he had won.
“Are you serious?”
- Chance Allen, upon learning he had won
What followed was close to a year of treatment. The process was carefully staged and started not with aesthetics, but with getting Chance out of pain. First, the teeth that were hurting were addressed. Then the underlying bite issues were corrected with an orthotic to relieve the muscle tension. Finally, with a stable jaw position and a healthy foundation in place, the smile itself was rebuilt.
Through it all, Chance says the experience at Tuscarora Dental felt like more than just dental appointments.
“The staff here is wonderful, from the front desk to the hygienist. Everybody here has been absolutely great. I felt cared for the whole time.”
- Chance Allen
Sarah watched it all unfold from the outside, appointment by appointment. “There’s been progress throughout the whole year, which has been really nice to see,” she said. “They feel like family here.”
When treatment was finally complete and Chance saw his finished smile in a mirror for the first time, his daughter was right there with him. The same little girl who used to point at his teeth and say “boo-boo.” The room got quiet for a moment. Then came the “wows.”
“I would find myself either smiling with my mouth closed or my hand up. Now it’s more free, just smile. Now I just feel better all around, whether it’s pain-free, whether it’s confidence. It just feels good.”
- Chance Allen
Sarah puts it simply: “It’s almost like he feels lighter, almost like he doesn’t have that barrier.” She says he’s more willing to be in photos now, more open in conversation, quicker to smile. “He doesn’t look so miserable even though I know he was happy. You can just see the happiness on him now.”
Chance is grateful to the whole team at Tuscarora Dental. But he saves a special thank-you for the person who started it all.
“Thank you to my wife. Without her, none of this would’ve occurred.”
- Chance Allen
Chance came to Tuscarora Dental not exactly knowing what was coming, just knowing it had to be better than before. After a year of treatment, a restored jaw, and a brand new smile, he has his answer.
And this holiday season, for the first time in years, he’ll be smiling wide in the family Christmas photos.
Ready to start your own smile journey?
Contact Tuscarora Dental in Martinsburg, WV at (304) 263-3131 or visit us at 22 Sierra Drive, Martinsburg, WV 25403.
