I never went to the dentist as a kid. My mother was a single mother to my brother and myself and it was just too expensive. I also never went to the doctor unless bones were broken, and I can clearly remember how angry my mother would be during these few and far between visits. Most of the time we were subjected to home remedies, and confined to bed rest until we were able, or the malady lessened sufficiently to justify going back to school or what have you. I did make it to the dentist once when I was a child, I took a header into my Grandmothers old school solid wood coffee table and broke the entire top row of teeth and was given silver teeth as a replacement.

I was also a touring musician in a punk rock band for the majority of my late teens and 20s. Suffice to say hygiene was not as high on the list of priorities as food and gas, and of course beer. Dental hygiene was non-existent. When the band broke up and I found my way back home, my absentee father had decided that the timing of child support no longer being necessary was a perfect time to start building a relationship with his kids, and seeing the state of my teeth, took me almost immediately to the dentist. It was a good experience. we got about half of the entire treatment plan done, which worked out to half of my entire mouth and cosmetically I felt better, but the continued treatment was laden with caveats by my father, one of which was traveling 800 miles to his dentist, and the other being all sorts of adherence to lifestyle changes that I felt had nothing to do with my teeth. and even less to do with building a relationship, and the dental work was never finished.

So I have spent the next 20 years living my life, doing my best, but never quite getting that job with the great health insurance that covers dental, or the income necessary to be able to afford the luxury of returning to the dentist. A combination of lifestyle choices, lack of income, lack of housing, and other trials and tribulations has led me to my current state. A broken. discolored and fractured smile. non-existent back teeth. or molars, my wisdom teeth being removed when my father took me to the dentist. So i have the entirety of my top teeth broken and fractured, no back teeth. and living everyday in considerable pain and not being able to eat anything that has a consistency above rice pudding, or soggy cereal.

It has led to an inability, either through distaste. embarrassment, or both, in getting employment. Severe depression and a level of fear bordering on obsessive paranoia that my teeth are going to kill me, due to the reoccurring abscesses so close to my brain, and the links between gum disease and heart attacks. I have sequestered myself away from the rest of the world, have no friends, and little to no family left other than my brother and my father, to which I am currently estranged for many reasons that I’ll not go into here.

I am in need of anything, anything at all that can help me with my teeth. I would take dentures, implants, even some veneer caps that cap your existing teeth and are a completely cosmetic and non-permanent solution but would help in the moment, and are considerable cheaper than many of the other options. However, I have been told that my mouth is no longer fixable and that I would need to completely replace my teeth in their current state and that dental implants would be the only and best option for long term stability and health. This also happens to be the most expensive, and given my lack of human interaction, internet side hustles and remote work barely pay my bills let alone are sufficient to the ability to save money to try and pay for them myself, or buy dental insurance, or even to try and finance the procedure.

So, having found no other recourse, I have made my way to this site in the hopes of a good Samaritan reading my plight, taking pity, and giving me the financial support necessary to changing my life with what I have come to recognize as a single day procedure that would not only change my life, but what might just save it. I don’t really know what else to say here, that wouldn’t be misconstrued as pandering, begging, manipulation, or playing upon sympathies. which I am not the greatest at. and I just happen to find reprehensible. Hopefully, this will result in something, but I hold very little hope and even fewer expectations. So. if you read my lament then thank you for spending the time. and if you find yourself in the position to be able to help you will find no one more appreciative and, hopefully, worthy.

Eating yet another meal of mashed potatoes….