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Young girl bullied for her crooked teeth happy to get braces | The Kansas City Star

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LOCAL

Bullied for her crooked teeth, this Kansas City child

yearns for a new smile

BY ERIC ADLER

AUGUST 25, 2019 05:00 AM, UPDATED AUGUST 25, 2019 04:06 PM

Smiles Change Lives, a Kansas City nonprofit, provides orthodontia to qualified patients, including Yuliana Alvarado, 11. Thecharge: $650. BY TAMMY LJUNGBLAD â | ERIC ADLER â

Moments before her turn, 11-year-old Yuliana Alvarado pulls herself upright in the recliningtreatment chair. She raises her hands to eye level. They’re trembling.

“I’m so nervous,” she says. “I’m just shaking.” Thrilled with anticipation is more accurate.

Thirty feet away at the orthodontist’s office this month, Yuliana’s big sister, Rosa, 14, lies back inanother chair, the first to get her dental braces. Yuliana will be next.



For so many kids, such a moment is just a bothersome part of growing up.

But for Yuliana — who for more than a year was insulted and bullied, who day after day would stepoff the afternoon bus at home and collapse into tears because the cruel, but popular girls in herfourth and then fifth grade class made fun of her small and crooked teeth and her gums thatprotrude in a pink crescent — it is everything.

“Beaver teeth,” they called her. “Why are your gums so big?” they’d say, mocking and snide.Yuliana is slender, with raven-black hair to her waist. She smiled easily and often before the girlswho used to be Yuliana’s friends turned nasty.

“It hurt me,” Yuliana said. She vowed she wouldn’t tear up in front of them. It didn’t always work.

It was not until recently, after Yuliana’s family came to know of a Kansas City nonprofit, SmilesChange Lives — started 22 years ago by a woman who, like Yuliana, had been mercilessly bullied asa child because of her teeth — did she think there was a possibility that her working-class familycould afford the $5,000 to $6,000 it typically costs for braces, let alone double that for both herand Rosa.

The price tag now via the nonprofit, in which some 850 orthodontists nationwide volunteer to workfor free: $650 each — everything included.

The organization, which in 1997 served 16 children in Kansas City, this year is expected to fit braceson close to 2,000 in all 50 states and three provinces of Canada.

Its goal is to expand by convincing more orthodontists to work pro bono. In some locales, such asBoston, Seattle, Philadelphia and Las Vegas, many have signed on. But in others, including inKansas and Missouri, children often must wait two to three years to be treated because too feworthodontists are willing to step up.

“We have probably dealt with 60,000 to 70,000 applications over the years,” said Tom Brown ofKansas City, the president of the organization and whose late mother, Virginia L. Brown, began thenonprofit. “Every one of them has been bullied. Every one.”

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“THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CHANGING MY LIFE”

Yuliana climbs back in the chair at Burleson Orthodontics & Pediatric Dentistry in Briarcliff.

“OK, are you ready?” asks orthodontist Don Sanchez.

Sanchez is 61 with short salt-and-pepper hair and a cheery demeanor. He’s partners with 40-year-old Dustin Burleson, a native Ohioan and 2004 University of Missouri-Kansas City dental schoolalumnus whose father, both brothers, uncle, cousin and ex-wife are all dentists, orthodontists orother specialists.

Burleson was a dental resident when he began working with Smiles Change Lives and, over theyears, has done upwards of 500 free cases. All the materials for the braces are provided by suppliers

Don Sanchez at Burleson Orthodontics in Kansas City is one of 850 orthodontists nationwide who donate their services tochildren like Yuliana Alvarado, whose families can’t afford the full price of braces. Sanchez works through the nonprofit SmilesChange Lives, which offers braces for $650. Tammy Ljungblad [email protected]



for free. Some orthodontists take on one or two pro bono cases a year. Burleson is among the fewwilling to take 50, 60 or more.

“I think if you talk to any orthodontist,” he said, “the best part of their day is to see a child who wasshy, or teased or bullied, or to see a kid who wouldn’t smile, begin to blossom.”

Yuliana opens wide.

She’s already had her initial X-rays. Just before their procedures started, she and Rosa handedSanchez a gift bag of chocolates. Each scripted a personal note. Yuliana’s began, “Thank you somuch for changing my life …”

Neither Burleson nor Sanchez knows much about the girls, beyond what they can see from theirexams. Sanchez looks at Yuliana’s teeth. Some are turned in, others rotated out. They’reovercrowded. Her overbite is not as pronounced as Rosa’s. But Yuliana’s upper gum bulges underher lip.

“She’s more complex than her sister in that she has overgrowth here of the gums and the bone,”Sanchez explains. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to start straightening…”

She’ll need braces for at least two years.

”When we get close to the finish, when we’re not going to be moving the teeth that much, we’llsend her to a gum specialist,” he says. A periodontist they know is willing to do the work for free.“They’ll probably take down this gum a little bit.”

He holds a mirror in his left hand and clasps a whirring wand in his right.

“I’m just going to clean your teeth off here a little bit,” he says, then directs. “Open. There you go,sweetie. Just a little air. You, OK?”

“Uhmm hmm,” Yuliana says.



“SNAGGLETOOTH”

Although it might seem there is little to connect Yuliana to Virginia Brown — a woman who becameaffluent enough to begin her own foundation and ultimately a nonprofit — the link is in the pain oftheir childhood humiliation.

Brown, known as Gini, was 92 when she died in July last year. Born Virginia Lippert in 1926, sheattended Hyde Park High School in Chicago, and then majored in English at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she met her husband from Kansas City. They would havethree children. She’d marry again. Her second husband, Maurice L. Brown, was part of a successfuloil and gas business, selling it in 1983.

As an adult, she was wealthy.

“When she was younger,” her son said, “herparents suffered the woes and throes of theDepression. They didn’t have enough money togive her braces at the time. They only hadenough money to give braces to her older sister.”

Yuliana Alvarado, 11, displays her teeth for a “before” picture prior to getting braces through Smiles Change Lives. Classmateshad bullied her, calling her “beaver teeth” and making fun of her bulging gums. “It hurt me,” she said. Tammy [email protected]



Eventually, she would get braces just prior tocollege. Until then, Brown said, “she wassubjected to a lot of name-calling: ‘snaggletooth,’‘You’re a vampire.’ … She was a very attractivewoman, but her teeth were bad. She didn’t like tosmile. To be honest with you, it scarred her forlife.

“Despite all the things she did over her life, shenever got over the shyness, the reticence toproject herself, which all stemmed from whathappened when she was a teenager.”

Her husband died in 1989. Years prior, the coupleestablished a fund to help people with facialdeformities. The cause gradually morphed intoone that helped children from low-incomefamilies obtain braces and build confidence.

The organization’s focus then moved beyondhelping families in poverty to one that would alsoprovide braces to children in working-class,middle-class or other families that simply can’tafford them. The model now is based on“sustainable income.”

“You have a family that makes, say, $60,000 ayear with four kids. That’s not poor,” Brown said.“But if you break that down, you can’t affordbraces for all those kids.

“The idea is not to make a choice between braces or food. The idea is to give these working peoplefor whom there are no programs an opportunity. That’s what my mother insisted.”

Everyone who seeks help from Smiles Change Lives writes an essay as part of the application.

“Last week we got an application from a woman in Parkland, Florida,” Brown said. Parkland iswhere on Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire killing 17 people atMarjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“She wrote that her son had been on the school grounds when the shooting began,” Brown said.“Her husband had lost his job. Her son had … post-traumatic stress disorder. It was having adeleterious effect on their daughter who needed braces.”

They weren’t rich or poor, but had a need they couldn’t meet.

Teased because of her teeth in high school, Virginia L.Brown of Kansas City began Smiles Change Lives in 1997 toprovide braces to other children and spare them a similarbullying SMILES CHANGE LIVES



“She wrote, ‘If you would help my daughter who is suffering mightily in all ways, this would be agodsend.’”

The $650 fee pays for neither the orthodontist nor for materials, all of which are donated. Brownsaid the money instead assures that the parents and children have buy-in to the program, feelcommitted to keeping appointments and comply with the orthodontist’s instructions. But themoney is primarily used to support the nonprofit’s tiny staff in Kansas City in its efforts to spreadthe word to more orthodontists nationwide and to enlist them into agreeing to work for free to helpmore kids.

“A DEEP SADNESS IN MY HEART”

Sanchez rinses Yuliana’s teeth, pointing out the strength and health of her gums.

“She’s one of my bright stars already,” he says. Yuliana giggles. “Little water here, sweetie.” Shecloses down on the straw to draw the water away.

“All right, are you ready? Ready, set, go?” Sanchez says.

Braces typically cost $5,000 to $6,000, a price far out of reach for Yuliana Alvarado’s family. But through the nonprofit SmilesChange Lives, the orthodontia costs $650 — everything included. Tammy Ljungblad [email protected]



“Go for it,” Yuliana chimes.

He begins to work, drying and preparing her teeth to glue each tiny bracket.

“Proud of you,” he says.

Sanchez is unaware of how Yuliana has longed for this.

In June, Burleson held an open house to assess kids for the program to see who might be ready orneed more time to fill cavities before their braces are placed. More than 100 children and theirfamilies showed, crowding this waiting room and lining up outside his office. Some drove hours toget there.

Many of the kids were similar in that they were too embarrassed to smile. If they did, their mouthswere closed and tight. If they laughed, they raised their hands to hide their teeth.

BEHIND OUR REPORTING

Why did The Star pursue this story?

The nonprofit Smiles Change Lives emailed reporter Eric Adler in 2017 to pitch a story coinciding with theorganization’s 20th anniversary. But a compelling story requires a compelling subject. We waited to find the rightperson to profile in order to best highlight the issue of bullying and how the organization works. (For more, click on

the arrow at top right.)

In photographs from years past, Rosa’s smile is a thin, closed-lipped line. This year she enteredLincoln College Preparatory Academy as a freshman. “I just felt my teeth were messed up. Iwouldn’t show them,” she says.

Parents said some of their kids’ personalities had changed out of self-consciousness. They’d turnedshy.

When Yuliana was told after Burleson’s open house that she would, indeed, get braces thissummer, her shoulders quivered. She wept in relief and buried herself into her mother’s side.

Yuliana at first didn’t tell her mother about the bullying, although clearly something was wrong.

“When she comes from the school, she is always crying,” Maria Rodriguez said.

Rosa began to notice, too, how nearly every night her little sister, lying in the adjacent bed, groundher teeth from mounting stress. Her mother insisted that Yuliana tell her what was happening.

“She told me, ‘Everyone is mean to me about my teeth,’” Rodriguez said.

9/6/2019 Young girl bullied for her crooked teeth happy to get braces | The Kansas City Star


Like most parents, Rodriguez urged her daughter to be proud of who she is and how she looks andto ignore the taunting. “I told her, ‘You’re so beautiful,’” Rodriquez said.

Yuliana tried to talk to the girls at school, asking them why they were being so mean. Her mother’swords helped.

“I looked at myself in the mirror,” Yuliana said, “and I was like, ‘You are pretty.’ … But there was adeep sadness in my heart. I’m pretty, but deep down I felt like I wasn’t, you know?”

Gradually other students in upper grades began to make fun of her teeth, Yuliana said. Rosa triedto intervene on her sister’s behalf, to talk to the girls and tell them to back off, but it did no goodand even got worse. The alienation spread.

“I had a little group, like two or three friends, I would ask, ‘Don’t you want to be my friends?’”Yuliana said. “They’d stay quiet. It was really hard to deal with that.” She searched for a metaphor.“It was like I was hanging on a rope and I was climbing,” she said, “and they’ll cut it and I’ll falldown. And I’ll keep on climbing, but they’ll keep on cutting it.”

Time and again, Yuliana’s mother, 35, went to the school to complain. Time and again, she said, theprincipal promised action, but little changed.

“It just kept going on,” Yuliana said.

It turned her inward. “I wanted it to stop,” she said.

Their dad signed them up for boxing lessons, just to give the girls strength and confidence.

The whole drama, Yuliana said, made her feel “weak.”

When fifth grade ended, the family decided to remove Yuliana from the school and sent her toCrossroads Academy on Central Street for sixth grade. This month she began seventh at its sisterschool, Crossroads Preparatory Academy, where she’s found friends and is happier.

Her smile unchanged, she feared the future and being bullied again.

Rodriguez, 35, and her husband, Jose Alvarado, 46, felt compelled to at least attempt to get theirgirls braces. But the cost at $5,000 to $6,000 each seemed impossible. Though not poor, thefamily is far from wealthy.

Jose Alvarado, a concrete worker, rises each day at 4 a.m. and works past 7 p.m., even 8, to supportthe family — Rosa, Yuliana and their youngest, 6-year-old Jose, named for his dad. Rodriguez, forextra money, sometimes works a shift on a food truck. She considered adding another job, or moreshifts, but who would watch the kids after school?

Sensitive to her sister’s misery, Rosa not only said she would forego braces, but offered to get a jobto help Yuliana. Next May, Rosa will turn 15 and mark her quinceañera, a milestone often



celebrated with a special dress and elaborate party. Forget it, Rosa told her parents. Use the moneyto help Yuliana.

“I said, ‘It’s fine. We don’t need it,’” Rosa said. “We can just have a normal day. Celebrate together— just the five of us.”

Her sacrifice wasn’t necessary. At a doctor’s appointment, they saw an ad for the Smiles ChangeLives program. At first they thought it couldn’t be real, or maybe they misheard: $650? It had to bea scam, they thought, until they later heard about it again, and found out it was bona fide.

“LIKE DISNEY WORLD,” BUT HAPPIER

Working left to right, Sanchez glues 12 brackets, one each to the front of Yuliana’s top teeth. Inabout three months, he’ll do the bottom teeth.

“Now what I’m going to do is make sure they are positioned on the tooth, properly, OK?” he says.

Yuliana has dreamlike expectations of how braces will change her life. In the weeks before theappointment her face brightened as she talked about being “empowered.”

Moments after receiving her new braces, Yuliana Alvarado, 11, happily takes a selfie outside Burleson Orthodontics in KansasCity. Tammy Ljungblad [email protected]


“It actually makes me feel really good,” she said. “I feel more relieved of everything. I feel like thisis not going to happen no more. It’s all going to be all over with. It’s going to be gone. It’s going to belike ‘goodbye.’

“When I found out I was going to get the braces, I really wanted to cry. I felt like, oh my God, it’stime. It’s time for me to get out of my shell like I used to be when I was a little girl. … It’s going to bea whole new world. It’s going to be like Disney World or something, but probably happier thanthat.”

Sanchez finishes up. His technician, Brooklyn Gaddie, cures the brackets, sets the wire and elasticbands in place. Rosa chose white bands; Yuliana chooses aqua. “It just reminds me of the ocean,”she says, a place she’s always been happy.

“She’s going to go over a lot of stuff with you and your mom, OK?” Sanchez says. “How to brush,what you can eat, what you can’t eat, not allowed to have any boyfriends.”

Yuliana laughs.

“All right. We did it,” Sanchez says.

Minutes later, she is done. Gaddie, the tech, passes Yuliana a hand mirror. Later, seated on a grassyrise outside of Burleson’s office, she will hold up a cellphone and take selfies.

In this moment inside, she lies back and looks at her teeth in the mirror, turning her head left andright.

“Oh my God,” she says. “They’re so pretty.”

TO LEARN MORE

For more information about Smiles Change Lives, go to smileschangelives.org.

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ERIC ADLER

Eric Adler has won more than 50 state and national journalism awards for his reporting that often tell theextraordinary tales of ordinary people. A graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in NY,he teaches journalism ethics at the University of Kansas.

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