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"“Wanna see a beautiful set of teeth?” ". -Joe Barone

At age 87, Mr. Joe Barone has lots to smile about. As NFED’s oldest member, and one of the first 30 members of the organization, Joe has been an inspiration from Day One. His health is excellent, and he continues an active lifestyle. But it’s his brand new smile that really says it all!

“Wanna see a beautiful set of teeth?” he says as he flashes his new and improved pearly whites. After 16 months of treatment, Joe has the teeth he always dreamed of — ones that look, feel and behave as his own. He received dental implants under the care of Dr. Robert Bentz, a board certified prosthodontist in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

“Joe is proof positive that it’s never too late to get the smile you’ve always wanted,” says Dr. Bentz. “His treatment was a total success.”

For Mr. Barone, who got his first set of partial dentures just before World War II at age 20, making the decision to get dental implants 66 years later was an easy one. “I was facing the fact that my four remaining teeth [which held my partial dentures in place] would have to be removed. I didn’t want to get full dentures and use pastes. I didn’t want problems with speaking and eating at my age!” he said.

He also wanted to be a role model for others adults with ED who might be considering getting implants in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or later. “If my story today is told at my age, I could help them have the best solution. I especially want older people with ED to know that implants can change their lives,” he said.

Mr. Barone’s involvement in NFED represents more than meets they eye, says Mary Kaye Richter, NFED founder and Executive Director. Their friendship began in the early 1980’s, when little was known about ED, and a child affected by ED was featured, along with his NASA cooling vest, on the show “That’s Incredible.” After viewing the program, Joe reached out to the mother of the child. So did Mary Kaye. Soon after, they were put in touch with one another. NFED was in its infancy as an organization, and Mr. Barone was shaping an important part of the journey.

“At that time, as a mother of a son who has ED, [I was] overwhelmed at the knowledge —the relief —that my son could grow to become a senior citizen. There was also the knowledge that Joe was such a lovely gentlemen, that my son can be the same kind of gentleman. That was important to me at the time, and it’s been important to every other family that has met Joe since,” she said.

Mr. Barone has spoken at nine NFED annual conferences since becoming a member. He encourages parents to support active, healthy lifestyles for their children, and stands as a role model of a full and rewarding life.

Joe was a shy boy who grew up in a close-knit family of 10 siblings, two of whom also were affected by ED. He remembers trying to keep cool during brutally hot Philadelphia summers, long before air conditioning was widely available. “Back then, my brother and I would press our faces against the marble between our kitchen and dining room,” he said. On hot nights he and his older brother would lay newspaper on the concrete floor of their family’s basement and sleep on it, to stay cool, he said.

Always adapting to meet his unique needs, Joe never let his condition keep him from being active. Thanks to ED, he took to water “like a fish,” he says. By high school, he was captain of his school’s swim team, having had more experience in the water than most other boys. During World War II, he worked in a defense supply factory that was not air conditioned. Since he was such as hard worker, his boss gave him leave during the unbearable summer months, so he could lifeguard at the Pocono Mountains. Until age 75, he worked at the busy restaurant and tavern he and his siblings owned and operated in a Philadelphia suburb.

“I think Joe has always been one that shows us that you go for what you want to do. It’s what he’s shown the younger kids, and even other adults who are affected by ectodermal dysplasia,”says Richter. Getting dental implants late in life is just one of his latest examples, she notes.

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