7 Years 40 days Sober - Missing Tooth

7 Years 40 days Sober - Missing Tooth

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? In this short, sharp episode of **I'm Quitting Alcohol**, comedian David Boyle hits day 7 years and 40 days sober and ends up talking less about booze and more about… his mum’s missing front tooth. On a family video call for his mum’s 66th birthday, her face pops up on screen and he’s instantly rattled. Her front tooth is gone, and he describes it as nothing less than "harrowing".

With his trademark brutal honesty, Boyle jokes that his mum has moved from "comfortably bogan" to "elite bogan" status, comparing the impact of a single missing tooth to a full-blown transformation. He doesn’t hold back on the visuals, pointing out how once that front tooth is gone, you suddenly notice the rest: "It's actually amazing how fucked you can look with just a missing tooth." The episode is classic Boyle: fast, raw, and very sweary.

There’s no polished self-help speech here, just a sober bloke reacting in real time to a confronting family moment, trying to cope with it by laughing rather than numbing out. He talks about offering to pay for dentures, even saying he’ll sell bitcoin if he has to, because he "never wants to have to see that again".

You’ll hear the mix of love, frustration and dark humour that runs through many families touched by long-term drinking, even when the story isn’t directly about alcohol. It’s a glimpse into how someone stays sober while still dealing with everyday shocks, family chaos, and uncomfortable truths. If you like your sobriety content unfiltered, sweary, and funny in a slightly traumatising way, this might be right up your street.

After listening, you might find yourself asking: how do you cope with confronting family realities now that the drink is gone?