If there's one thing I've always said, it's that you know your teeth are bad when your dentist starts crying. Yes, in another Gardner family first, Lisa reduced her dentist to tears yesterday.

We returned to her usual dental practice yesterday lunchtime, and this time saw her 'own' dentist - a lady that Lisa's only actually seen once before. She'd been fully briefed by Mr O'Keefe, and was prepared for the full horror of Lisa's mouth, but what she didn't know was the back story. She was aware that Lisa had previously worn a brace, but assumed it was done as a teenager on the NHS. When we told her that it was only fitted in 2009 at a cost of thousands, and she then saw the current damage, she was so heartbroken, she actually shed a tear.

Lisa was already crying at this point, and the dental nurse looked a bit misty-eyed. Frankly I was the only one holding it together, which is not like me at all. The upshot of it all was that, sadly, Lisa's two damaged teeth have had to be removed as well. One definitely wasn't salavageable, while the other had a slim chance of survival, but would have required months of orthodontic work with no guarantee of success. Under the circumstances, extraction was the best option. And as it transpired, it was the right decision. When the dentist came to remove it, she pulled out the tooth with her thumb and forefinger. Apparently that shouldn't be possible with a tooth that size, so she was right to take it out.

So Lisa's now three teeth down, with a slight chance that a fourth front tooth will have to come out in the future. She's had stitches to her gum, is still on antibiotics, and has to go back in a week to have an impression taken for a denture. We've been advised to go with an NHS appliance in the short term because, unfortunately, due to the state of Lisa's mouth, no denture will fit perfectly, and a privately made one would be a waste of our money. Once the falsies are fitted and Lisa's mouth has healed up, we can look for a better long-term solution.

It's not easy finding positives at the moment, but I have to say that her facial bruises are looking a lot better this morning. She looks less like a car crash victim, and more like she's been careless with her Ribena. A couple more days, and she'll be able to leave the house without people thinking I've beaten her up. It's something for me to look forward to, anyway.