Lucretia Williams was in a terrible situation nearly ten years ago. Living with an abusive husband, she found herself in a choke hold, desperately biting to free herself. She succeeded, and soon thereafter left with her children to start over. But the fight caused serious damage to her bottom teeth, which eventually had to be removed. But thanks to a charitable program designed to help battered women, Lucretia will get her smile back very soon. The Sun Times tells more:
“I’ve been in the bathroom literally pulling up my bottom lip to cover it,” she said. “It’s hard. I’ll be trying to carry on a conversation knowing it can be seen, it is being seen and that they [the teeth] are not there.”
In about two weeks, Williams will hide her smile no longer. Partnered up with a Chicago dentist through a national program called Give Back A Smile, she has received extensive dental work as well as a new partial denture to fill in her missing teeth.
Give Back A Smile started a decade ago through the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. The program estimates that 827 domestic violence victims have received treatments worth a total of nearly $8 million.
Participants need to be out of the abusive relationship for at least a year, unless their partner is incarcerated. They also need to meet at least once with a counselor, minister or social worker, who signs off on the application.
