A woman with her two front teeth missing has revealed how she uses chewing gum to fill the gap – a form of DIY dentistry.
According to The Sun, Sue came up with the idea after losing teeth to a series of “dental mishaps”.
The publication shared, “Starring in Never Seen a Doctor on Channel 4, Sue, at the time 56, revealed how the fear of visiting a dentist left her with only 17 teeth and visible gaps.
“Trying to hide just how severe the situation had become, the Essex-based mum had come with a creative solution - to stick chewing gum in-between her pearly whites.
“For a more natural and realistic look, she also admitted to staining them with coffee.”
''I've been really unlucky with my teeth from the age of seven,'' the mother-of-two said.
''I walked into a scaffold pole and broke my front tooth.
''When I was 11, I fell off a wall, broke my other front tooth,'' she revealed.
According to the news report, “To make matters even worse, Sue's gums also became infected in her early teens - so by the age of 15, she had lost all of her back teeth.
“But then an unfortunate visit to the dentist changed her life; one that caused the mum to develop dentophobia.”
She explained how they had used a numbing spray on the back of her throat, however as she didn’t realise this at the time, she began to drink water – which left her with a numbing sensation in her chest and throat.
''Gonna die, can't breathe. Panicked, completely panicked,'' she recalled the traumatic incident.
''Flew out of the chair, flew home and that was it - the last time I went to a dentist.''
Sue then explained to the host of the show, Katie Piper, how she had created her own solution using chewing gum.
''To get the perfect piece of chewing gum will take me about two to three days with chewing and staining.
''I put the chewing gum in coffee so it's not so brilliant white against the discoloration of the rest of my teeth.''
Despite this, Sue admits that she stays inside due to feeling conscious about her ‘teeth’ falling out in public.
One viewer of the show wrote, ''This makes me want to cry. No one should have to do this.”
Another shared, ''It doesn't just look unappealing, but you can actually die from certain dental diseases.”