Kim Clijsters won the Aussie Open ... with the help of a Dentist!

For those of you who don't follow tennis, earlier today Kim Clijsters of Belgium won the 2011 Australian Open women's singles title, her fourth Grand Slam title. She defeated Li Na of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win her first Grand Slam in the land down under, and will be looking to retire within the next year after having come out of a previous retirement back in 2007. Interesting. And exciting! But you may have already gathered that from the thousands of articles about her hard-fought win today.

But what you probably didn't hear ... was that Clijsters had chipped her tooth when she landed at the airport before the tournament even began! Some say - and by 'some' I mean myself - that it's possible she wouldn't have won the Aussie Open had a dentist not come to her aid in this oral emergency! In fact, she may have had to withdraw from the tournament completely due to the excruciating pain ... (just kidding here)!

So it turns out most chipped tooth situations aren't that painful. But it IS important to see a dentist as soon as you can after you realize your tooth has been chipped. Depending on the severity of the situation, you may need a filling or even a crown. Besides potential pain, increased sensitivity to cold and heat, and perhaps a small hole in your smile, an obvious reason to visit a dentist immediately is so your gums or tongue don't suffer any damage from a sharp, jagged-edged tooth. This is not unlike a shark, but sharks probably don't think about these issues.

Anyways, here's the quote from her press conference after her win:

"Q: What happened to your teeth at the airport?


Kim Clijsters: To my tooth? Yeah, it chipped off. That's what happened. I was eating a rice cracker, actually, nothing hard. Just a nice, soft rice cracker. I thought there was like a piece of rice that wasn't cooked well or something, and I just spat it out. I felt my tooth not being there completely, so I was like, Oh boy."

Oh boy indeed! Who knew that an innocent rice cracker could win a battle of strength against your tooth?

"I went to a dentist here in Melbourne and he fixed me up really quickly ... He just said that me if you get to the final ... so I promised him 'OK, for sure, I'll do that.' So, thank you."

That's very sportsmanship-like of you Kim - congrats on the win!

But anyways, case in point, dentists are more important than you might think! Although a chipped tooth is probably one of the best worst things that could happen to you from a sports injury or any injury whatsoever, more damage could have easily been done. If Kim was a high school tennis player with braces and suffered a 35 meters/second (or 80 mph) tennis ball to the face, the situation would have been much different. An oral surgeon may have been involved!

Oh, and here's my favorite bit from Kim:

"Q. Are you going to name the mystery dentist?

Clijsters: I actually don’t remember his name. He was somewhere near Chapel Street."

:)

Kim's pearly whites

What was the dentist's name??

Eric