Jessica's New Smile

Hi! I'm Cheryl Blake. I am fundraising to help my daughter, Jessica, get a new SMILE. Jessica has always had difficuly smiling for photos and in social situations. Once we tried so hard to get her to smile for family photos that she just broke down in tears. Jessica has tears and a frown in all those photos. School photos we never bought because Jessica had her lips drawn tightly across her teeth to hide them. Her Senior Picture photo shoot was filled with tears because everyone was trying to get Jessica to smile and she just wasn't comfortable.

Jessica was born with some facial malformations. She was born with a cleft soft pallet and had surgery to repair it at 18 months. Her second Christmas was spent eating semi-liquid food from a syringe. She has a very small upper jaw and a normal bottom jaw. Many of her teeth never grew correctly. Some came in; others never did. For years we took Jessica to Cleft Pallet Boards (groups of Physicians that specialize in correcting the dental and malformation issues caused by a cleft pallet), Dentists, Orthodontists, and Maxilo-Facial Surgeons. Some were able to make minor corrections to Jessica's smile. She wore braces for a while, but that orthodontist had to leave, the braces were removed, and her teeth moved back to their original position because the teeth needed to hold them in place are missing. One tooth even had to be chipped away from Jessica's chin bone because it grew sideways instead of coming out upright into her mouth. Dentists told us that Jessica doesn't have enough teeth to put in bridges because there is nothing to anchor them too. Maxilo-Facial Surgeons told us Jessica did not have enough bone in her jaw to attach implants. For 30 years we have had Doctors try to give Jessica a smile. For 30 years Doctors do procedures and then tell us that is all they can do; she will have to see another specialist. For 30 years Jessica has been embarassed to smile.

Finally we took Jessica to ClearChoice Implants. There they have 3 Physicians specialalizing in Prostodontics (making implants) and Maxilo-Facial Surgery (surgery of the jaw and face.) They also have technicians, in-house, who are experts in building oral implants. Everything is done in one suite of offices, exam rooms and operating rooms. No more going from one Physicians office to another, only for them to say they cannot give Jessica a smile.

The Doctors asked Jessica what she wanted most from them. She told them she wanted to be able to SMILE! (and maybe be able to bite into an apple, too) The Doctors at Clear Choice told her they can help her - Finally! Please help us fulfill Jessica's dream to SMILE.