A woman whose front teeth were nearly 2cm apart has revealed her transformed new smile where the gap has completely disappeared. Kirsten Rendell, 20, was born with a narrow palate and large underbite that gave her a lisp and made it difficult to eat. She underwent a painful jaw expansion process where she had to manually twist a metal expander, forcing her two front teeth apart, until she had a 17mm gap. Four months after the surgery she had braces fitted to pull her teeth back together for $31,000 (£15,809). But, last December, she was finally able to have her expander removed, and the space between her two incisors had disappeared. Kirsten, from Christchurch, New Zealand, said: "It’s another step closer to being at the end of this journey. "My orthodontist knew, when I was in a strong enough wire and my bone had fully re-healed, that my expander would be ready to be removed. She will continue to wear her braces until she can have her final jaw surgery to realign her underbite, which she anticipates will happen this year. While her smile transformation is not over, supermarket worker Kirsten feels much better about herself when she looks in the mirror. "I'm really starting to get happy with my teeth, besides the gap," she said. "The surgery means everything to me. For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted nice teeth."