An avid gamer who had finally embraced the “goofy” teeth that saw her branded “bunny” and “donkey” by school bullies is desperately fundraising for implants after her trademark gnashers were knocked out in a fall, leaving her “looking like a zombie.”
Buoyed by support from the gaming community, Georgina Rossiter, 24, even made a feature of her wonky pearly whites by adopting a rabbit avatar, only to fall flat on her face after a comedy gig on Friday June 3, which broke three front teeth.
Currently looking for work and living with her mother, Maria, 60, and makeup artist brother, John, 27, in south west London, she now needs £18,000 for implants only available privately, or she will have to have standard dentures, costing £300.
Now so self-conscious she is even wearing Covid masks indoors, Georgina said: “When I saw my reflection on my phone after I fell, I didn’t recognise myself.”
She added: “My lips were swollen and I had completely lost my front three teeth.
“I thought, ‘This is what a zombie looks like – an actual zombie.'”
“All my life, I hated my teeth and hid them. Then, this year, thanks to the lovely people I met gaming, I finally felt okay about them only to lose them. I’m devastated.”
Georgina, who stresses that she was not drunk, tripped shortly after 10pm on the Friday of the Platinum Jubilee weekend after going to a comedy gig on London’s Southbank with a friend.
She said: “We’d only planned what we were doing the night before and decided to head to this bar after the gig.”
“I was walking completely normally then I suddenly tripped.
“I don’t know if it was me tripping on the pavement or on my new high-top converse trainers.
“But my hands were in my pockets and I was wearing quite tight cargo pants, so I couldn’t pull them out in time and just fell head first.”
She added: “My head smacked on the ground and my teeth took the brunt of it.
“There was just blood everywhere and I remember being so shocked. I was freaking out, shouting ‘My teeth! My teeth!’ I was thinking, ‘I can’t live my life with no teeth.'”
Rushed to hospital by ambulance and checked over, Georgina – who is awaiting a CT scan to make sure she has not fractured her jaw – was advised to visit her dentist, who has now confirmed it will be £300 for dentures privately, but if she wants implants, which are also only available privately, she estimates it will be around around £18,000.
She said: “I didn’t realise there were emergency dentists, so I waited until after the Bank Holiday to see someone on Monday.”
Georgina added: “I was told that if I’d gone a few hours after the fall, they might have been able to save my teeth, but I didn’t even pick them up when they were knocked out, as I was so shocked.
“The dentist said they have to extract the roots of my teeth because of the risk of infection to my jaw.
“But if I want implants, which are better – especially at my age – they cost around £5,000 each and I can’t possibly afford that.”
The accident is just the latest in a long line of tooth-related sagas for poor Georgina.
Growing up, she had retainers from the age of 11 before having braces for wonkiness fitted at the age of 12.
But while they pushed her teeth together she still had an overbite, which made her horribly self conscious in her teens.
She said: “I grew up being called “ugly,” so I have always been insecure. I was bullied and called ‘bunny’ or ‘donkey’ which really affected me.
“If a guy ever asked me out, I would think they were just having a laugh and it was some kind of joke. ”
But joining Twitch in March 2020 – an online streaming platform, where she could stream herself playing Rocket League, an arcade-style vehicle football game -massively built her confidence. She said: “I have always been a gamer, but I discovered Twitch and Rocket League during the pandemic.
“I started streaming the games and everyone was so nice and loving and never mentioned my teeth. They saw me for me and not just as ‘the girl with the big teeth’.”
Georgina added: “I started to make a bunny my logo and tried to own my teeth and accept them as a unique part of me.“I was feeling so much more confident because of that community.“I would never have even videoed myself before joining Twitch. It was such a big thing for me.”
And Georgina says it is the same gaming community that has now rallied around and helped her to crowdfund an incredible £12,000 towards teeth implants within 24 hours of her launching a GoFundMe page.
Left with no front teeth, while she awaits temporary dentures later this month, she said: “I feel so embarrassed about how I look. “The day after my fall, I woke up and asked myself, ‘How come this is real and not a nightmare?’
“I was having a perfectly normal day and now I look like a zombie!
“I have never liked my teeth, but now I can’t look in the mirror. I don’t recognise myself.”
She added: “I haven’t even shown my mum or brother what I look like with no teeth. I am wearing a mask around the house, because I don’t want them to see me.”
Being toothless has made Georgina – who has had two relationships – even more certain she will never have a serious boyfriend.
She said: “I’ve never had any confidence with men and relationships are now completely off the cards.
“No one is going to want to wake up to someone of 24 with no teeth.”
Keen to have teeth implants, as she feels they will at least look better than dentures, now Georgina prays she can raise the money she needs to finance them.
With no work on the horizon, crowdfunding is her only choice.
She said: “Dentures will just mess with my self-confidence.
“I have suffered with anxiety and had self-esteem issues for so long, I can’t bear for my confidence to be knocked down even more.”
Georgina added: “I am currently taking my maths GCSE again to put on my CV and I am making some money on Twitch, but I only have £300 to my name.
“I had job interviews lined up, but I can’t face anyone seeing me right now.
“Starting a GoFundMe page was all I could think to do to make the money I need for implants.
“I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me, so far.
“I just want to be able to smile again.”
- Support Georgina’s fundraiser at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/broken-my-jaw-and-lost-3-of-my-teeth
