Lewis’s case study
Lew gets the last laugh on failing teeth.
Lewis Carrington was born to be a star. A natural funnyman, he won the nation’s hearts in the TV documentary Grimefighters.
Known as Lew to his friends, he laughs easily as he recalls his brush with fame and as the unlikely adopted ambassador for the city of Wolverhampton.
Fan club
Topping 1,500 members of his Grimefighters’ Fan Club on social networking website Facebook, Lew had his supporters clamouring for him to appear in the New Year’s Honours list.
Still a well-known character on the city streets six years after sharing his unique take on life before the cameras, Lew is now enjoying retirement from his life of grime and a cameo appearance on Harry Hill’s Get Toasted.
But hidden beneath the smiles and priceless one-liners, the jovial comic genius was struggling with another often-comedic subject – dentures.
And indirectly, the former environmental waste operative owes his celebrity status to an ill-fitting set of them. “I could have retired from the council earlier, but wanted to save enough money to get my problem fixed,” says Lew.
Wife Gill adds: “He’d seen the stories in the papers about how other people had their problems sorted out and had also done a lot of internet research.” Lew, in his late sixties, of Wednesfield, was cared for by Steven Burchell Dip CDT RCS(Eng) GDC108353, principal at the North Street Dental.
Says Lew: ”I was using a bucket-load of fixative just to keep my teeth in. They’d be okay for half-an-hour and then they’d be dancing all over the place.
“My top denture wasn’t too bad, but the lower moved all around with eating and laughing was risky. I’d had the trouble for years – every time I’d have a bit of tough steak, I was done for.
“I was a bit apprehensive, but I need not have been. I had two implants to stabilise my lower denture and I never felt a thing. I expected a lot of discomfort, but after a couple of days, I was absolutely fine.
Over the moon
“Steve made me the over-dentures for the bottom and a new top set of teeth. They are absolutely great. Nothing was too much trouble for any of the friendly staff and going to see Steve was a pleasure.
“Going to the dentist had never been so good and I am over the moon with the results.”
On his star role in Grimefighters, Lew recalls: “There were some funny moments. We’d had a call to pick up a dead cat in Penfields. They said the animal was at the end of a drive. I looked everywhere and couldn’t see it.
“There was a charity collection going on in the road where people had left clothing in bags for pick up. By the time I’d found out that the cat had been put into one of them, it had been collected by the charity and the van was disappearing down the road.
“Somebody was going to get a surprise,” adds Lew with a wry smile.
Lewis after his treatment at North Street Dental