Hi,

My name is Taylor, and when I was 11 years old, I had a skating accident that ruined my mouth for the rest of my life. I've had more surgeries than I can count to create solutions for me to be able to smile. Honestly, for a while things were fine. I had veneers from the time I was 18 (now 34) and up until age 32 I hadn't had any issues. Then, it seemed to snowball. I had abscess after abscess. Then, needing root canals from what we assumed were cracks in the veneers causing an infection.

The abutment, which is the part of my tooth that was cemented into the veneer, had cracked in 2 of my four teeth. We explored options for getting the issues fixed. This was during spring of 2020. Right when the world was about to shut down. It means more surgery to implant new abutments and either get new veneers or get full implants and not have to worry about a bridge anymore.

Both of these solutions are costly and dental insurance will only cover $1,500 and that's AFTER the process is complete.

With Covid shutting everything down and not having the funds, I have spent the last two years with a temporary solution. I have been using Polygrip to fix my bridge in place. It's a temporary bonding agent used for dentures. So two to three times per day I would have to apply this to my teeth and it would keep the bridge in place. As long as I wasn't eating anything It would be ok.

Unfortunately, this morning, the number of root canals I've had previously has done a number on the integrity of one of my last abutments.

The tooth broke, and now I have an exposed hole in my tooth from a root canal. I can no longer use my temporary solution to fix my teeth.

I'm afraid to smile, and I'm afraid to even speak to anyone in person. I don't want people to see the mess I have in my mouth. Yet, it's my job to speak and engage with people every single day.

I feel like plenty of people are more in need than I am. I feel almost sick that I even am looking for help with this. I just don't know what else to do. I have no other options. Bad financial decisions in my past have made it impossible to get a loan to cover the cost of this.

I don't want my kids to see me lose my confidence and how I carry myself.