BOSTON – It was a moment that went viral on Monday when Derrick White took a hit in the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals and came up bloody with a chipped tooth. “They were trying stuff in the locker room, I was like I don’t care, just play,” said White after the NBA championship game.
“I knew there was going to be some damage”
Dental doctors Maged el-Malecki and Joey Chang of Boston Dental were watching, and they knew it couldn’t be good. “When he went down with the amount of force in that direction, I knew that there was going to be some damage to the teeth and/or bone,” said Dr. Chang in an interview with WBZ-TV.
Little did the doctors know they would be getting the call for the fix. “I was like oh my gosh really? I’ll definitely be there and I’ll help however I can,” said Dr. Chang.
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And of course a duck boat parade was just days away with a smile on the line. “Definitely wanted to get him there with a smile,” Dr. Chang said.
There he was Friday, a smiling Derrick White in the rolling rally celebration who had admitted earlier in the week he didn’t want to flash his pearly whites during the post-game celebration because of the tooth. But this player had put it all on the line.
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“This is spreading throughout Boston. Everybody is very happy to see him smiling the way he is smiling now,” said Dr. el-Malecki. “So we are very happy to be part of this.”
Dentists say it’s a temporary fix
The hour and a half procedure to repair the broken tooth after White collided with Mavericks player Dereck Lively is a temporary fix that was performed just Thursday. Asked what kind of patient he was, Dr. Chang said, “He was very nice throughout it. He was very humble. I can’t imagine a better patient really.”
Now White will need follow-ups to make it permanent unless something else happens. “Hopefully it lasts a lifetime unless he decides to do the same thing in a final next year. We’ll be here to take care of for him as well,” said Dr. el-Malecki.
Thinking about next year, he says, is definitely something worth smiling about.