AT an "all-time low" with her weight, Denise Cann made the drastic decision to let doctors wire her jaw shut.
She'd ballooned to well over 16 stone and believed that having her teeth "cemented" together would stop her from gorging on too much food and piling on the pounds.
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However, little did Denise, 56, know the torment that would ensue - as the procedure left her unable to talk, yawn or sneeze properly.
Now, 30 years on from her nightmare ordeal, Denise, from Neath Port Talbot, Wales, has finally lost the weight she wanted to - through a much safer method.
The mum-of-three overhauled her diet and started exercising and has since shed an impressive five stone.
She said: "I'm able to take my grandchildren all the places I wasn't able to go before and I feel confident in myself. I now enjoy buying clothes for myself."
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Denise says she struggled with her weight ever since she was at school, when her classmates used to tease her about her size.
"I looked like Jaws from James Bond", said Denise, who was even weighed by her teacher at the back of the class.
And by the time Denise turned 18 she decided it was time she took drastic measures to stop herself from eating too much.
She spoke to her doctors who agreed to wire her jaw shut so only food in liquid form could pass through a small gap between her top and bottom teeth.
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Denise told Wales Online: "I had metal covers put over my top and my bottom teeth, and they were cemented together with little metal hooks coming out.
"Then thin wire was wrapped around those hooks to hold my mouth in place.
"I could only talk through clenched teeth."
I could only talk through clenched teeth
However, soon after the procedure, Denise's health began to deteriorate and she was left in complete agony.
"Soon after having it done I began to feel very unwell, very weak and I didn't seem to be losing a great deal of weight at all," she said.
"I was unable to yawn or sneeze properly, my jaw would ache and I would long to be able to open and stretch my jaw."
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But worse was to follow for Denise when she discovered she was pregnant just months after the procedure.
She added: "I had terrible morning sickness but I was unable to open my mouth properly. It just all came out through my nose. It was horrendous."
Denise eventually decided to have her teeth unwired at Morriston Hospital in Swansea - which was yet another gruelling procedure.
She said: "As it was cemented to my teeth, the only way to get it off was to gradually move it back and forward until it became loose and then pull it off.
"I passed out in the chair. I thought all my teeth were coming out. For about a year after I had black cement on my teeth."
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After giving birth to her daughter Gemma, Denise continued to pile on the ponds - and was even mistaken for still being pregnant.
The grandmother-of-three admitted: "My confidence hit rock bottom.
"I did keep trying to lose weight. I tried every fad diet going - and I was even hypnotised.
My confidence hit rock bottom
"I would wear black clothes and did everything I could to stay in the shadows."
And Denise's physical health began to deteriorate as she put on more and more weight - eventually becoming unable to walk up the stairs.
However, her turning point finally came when a work colleague convinced her to join a local Slimming World group.
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"I didn't believe that anything would ever work for me," she said.
"That evening I went and although I didn't know it then, it changed my life forever."
Since sticking to Slimming World's diet plan, which involves giving certain foods high in sugars and fats a "syn" value, Denise has dropped from 16 stone to 11 stone in five years.
"Healthy eating with Slimming World was the answer I was looking for all along," she added.
"My health has improved so much that I'm now even considering running, never mind walking."
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Denise is now hoping to inspire other slimmers to follow in her footsteps by becoming a Slimming World consultant and running her own groups.
"I want to help those people who have battled with their weight for years and tell them that they can do it," she added.
"I also want to inspire younger people to eat healthily and not have their best years affected by their weight."
Original post:
Weight loss: I lost five stone after doctors wired my jaw shut in a desperate bid to help me trim down - The Sun
