Judy Nash is smiling.
“I wanted my mouth fixed and they fixed it,” Mrs. Nash says, referring to Bernstein Dental staff. “They gave me my quality of life back.”
Mrs. Nash and her husband Jonathan came to Greenville five years ago from Maryland. They both had successful careers there – she in health care administration. Approaching retirement, the couple were looking for a lower cost of living and a slower pace of life. They found a home in northern Pitt County just more than a mile from Contentnea Health’s James D. Bernstein health center.
The Nash home is a testament to what’s important in their lives – family and faith. Frames of assorted sizes and colors decorate walls and tables, chronicling their children and grandchildren through all stages of life. Interspersed in these family memories are symbols of faith, along with plants that Mrs. Nash nurtures. Her driveway is dotted with purples, reds, yellows and green – flowers and plants that attest to her joy in planting and nourishing the beauty of nature.
She pops one of her daily medications on her tongue and chats about her life. Then she completes the medication-taking process with a swallow of sugar-free orange juice. Part of the story includes her decision to make James D. Bernstein health center her home for both medical and dental care.
“I worked for a while at the Council on Aging,” she says. “My job was very person focused. I loved that. I’m a people person. When I wore a mask, it was OK. But then we stopped having to wear masks all the time. I just couldn’t keep looking at people the way my teeth looked.” Mrs. Nash says her tooth health had gotten worse over time from lack of care. “When I was 50, I started seeing a dentist. She started scraping with that hook and I wasn’t going back.”
Seventeen years later, Mrs. Nash called Berstein health center. “I told them I wanted a good doctor. I had to wait a little while, but I kept calling. They made me an appointment with Dr. Rob (Doherty).
“When we met, I told him how I was and what I wanted and what I needed,” she says. “If you don’t think you can do that, just get close. He took a detailed interest in satisfying me and getting my appearance back. He understood the assignment. Dr. Rob was ready to go. He explained to me what he could do, and he told me how much it would cost. You’re the one I want to do the work,” she told him. “I started saving the money.”
Dr. Rob says he was eager to get started. Helping people get their smiles back is what “fills that part of me that wants to help people. That’s (Contentnea Health). That’s why we’re here – to help people.”
Dr. Rob says getting Mrs. Nash’s smile back was a process, which is not unusual. “Typically, fitting someone with dentures takes 4 to 5 visits. For her first visit, we removed a few of her broken-down teeth in key areas of her mouth. Removing those teeth early on allowed the gums to heal. The gums shrink when you remove teeth, and we like to make sure the healing process is complete before moving forward.”
The rest of the process included removing her remaining teeth and looking at pictures of Mrs. Nash before her teeth started decaying and loosening. “We made preliminary impressions and measurements of her teeth,” Dr. Rob says. Determining the right wax rim and smile line were the final steps before having the dentures built at Grubbs Dental, a local lab. Building dentures start to finish is a two-month process, he says. The next step was setting Mrs. Nash’s dentures in wax to see how they looked and felt.
“We want them to feel good, function with eating and speaking, and also look good aesthetically,” Dr. Rob says.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Mrs. Nash says. “They all took their time with me. They took my feelings and my fear into account. They showed concern for me.”
“I feel like me again.”
