Superglue can fix a lot of things, but teeth are not one of them. That’s obviously common sense, but this British woman was so afraid of the dentist that she actually superglued her broken teeth to her gums. Needless to say, she ended up damaging her gums and spending nearly all her life savings on corrective surgery.

Angie Barlow, who works as a professional dog walker in Greater Manchester, England, said: “I’ve always been scared of the dentist because my mum died at 34 from throat cancer. She had a tooth out, and that’s how they found she had cancer. That fear has always been in the back of my mind. You just get your mindset and you think, ‘don’t go, don’t make that phone call.’”

But, at one point, her smoking had damaged her teeth so badly that Barlow began to lose her teeth. And instead of going to the dentist, she just used superglue to reattach them. “When the tooth comes out, I just put a little bit of glue and try and hold it in place to keep it, so I don’t have a gap in my teeth,” she explained in a video. “I use glue on the top of the tooth, and then I put it back in place until the glue is set.”

The quick-fix solution, although pain-free, turned out to be rather unsightly. Barlow’s embarrassment over the state of her smile led her to become reclusive. “I just feel so self-conscious that I don’t go anywhere really,” she said. “Even going in the shop, I feel embarrassed. They’d be like, nudge, nudge, look at her, you know. Even in front of my son I’m embarrassed to sit and have a conversation with him. So I’ll just turn my head away while I talk to him. Half the time I talk with my hand over my mouth.I know I shouldn’t really because it draws the eye even more.”

After 10 years of supergluing her teeth back in her mouth, Angie finally built up the courage to see a dentist about her problem, who told her that the toxic chemicals in the glue had damaged 90 percent of the bones in her upper jaw. “It’s probably one of the worst cases that I’ve seen and certainly one of the worse cases of desperation, to superglue a tooth back in the mouth,” said Dr. Serpil Djemal of King’s College Hospital, who had to perform surgery to fix the damage. 11 of her top teeth were extracted during the operation, and six titanium screws were inserted into her jaw with 12 new permanent teeth.

The woman ended up spending about $25,000 of her life savings on the four-hour surgery, but says that it was worth all the trouble. She no longer feels the need to hide her smile. “It’s wonderful isn’t it, I feel amazing, and there’s no hands over my mouth or embarrassment.”

“People have said they notice a difference in me,” she added. “My friends, they’re like ‘Oh my God, you’re more outgoing!”

Angie Barlow’s unbelievable story was documented in a BBC special called The Truth About Your Teeth, which airs on June 4.