All I want for Yule is a whole new mouth!

Whelp - the day I never knew I was dreading is finally here. I keep looking at that number up there, never having had that much in my life, and I’m sitting here wondering how I could be asking friends, family, and strangers for this amount of money. But here I am, metaphorical hat in hand, asking for y’all’s help. 

I’ve never been the best with taking care of myself, teeth being included. It’s only been through therapy, a Bipolar II (cycles that make it hard to form habits), and an ADHD (object permanence issues) re-diagnosis and treatment that I’ve been able to understand more of how my brain works and things I can do to take care of myself even in some not so great moments. I’m not blaming my neuro-divergency for this, I know many folx that are in very similar boats who manage to take care of themselves and avoid this kind of mess. I accept this as something that I could have stopped, yet was unable to. But now that I’m on the right path towards a healthier mouth, I find I need help.

I started seeing a dentist a little over a year and a half ago to get the insane amount of work I needed done. I went to a dentist a friend recommended, as he was a mom and pop shop that I knew wouldn’t charge me lots of $$$ up front. I mean that literally: No receptionist, no hygienist, just a very nice man and his tools. One of the first things he did was have me get two root canals done on some front teeth (#7 & 11 for my dental minded folx) at an endodontist and he would finish them up later. Well later turned into over a year. He kept saying we needed to do other work first, instead of getting back to the two RCT treated teeth. I did have other work done (extractions, fillings, etc etc) during this time frame that really brought my mouth into a healthier state, but these two RCTs were never seemed to be on the list to get fixed. To be clear and fair he was working at my pace, within my budget, and is a great General Dentist. I think I just had too much that needed done urgently, and it was probably more than he could handle. I don’t blame him in any way.

Sadly that’s come at a cost. I went to get a second opinion finally. The RCT teeth have gone past the point of being able to save them now and my new dentist is recommending a procedure called the All-on-4 (or 6), because of my age, the number of upper teeth I’ve already had extracted, and the longevity/success rate of it. What this procedure does is remove the remaining teeth from my upper bridge, installs 4-6 implant posts, and a thinner and stronger, more permanent full denture bridge will be attached to those. This will allow me full use of my upper bridge, and all the lovely healthy things that come with that. This bridge would need to be replaced in 15-20 years, but it would only be a fraction of this cost and I would be well prepared for it. In all transparency I do have other options: I could choose to just get these two RCT teeth pulled and implants to replace (however that’s still roughly 8-9k), or I could get them pulled and have a cast removable partial denture put in (that would also replace missing teeth in back portion of my upper bridge). These last two options would restore most functions of my mouth, but would not restore all of it and would need to be replaced more frequently. The AO4 surgery is considered entirely cosmetic and insurance will not cover any portion of it, even after repeated attempts by my dentist at explaining reasoning. However they will cover the other two implants (8-9k is after my ins covers their portion), or the denture option. 

Y’all - I’m not particularly someone who asks for help often, but I really really need help this time. In order to even schedule the AO4, I will need 15k to put down due to cost of materials and the pre-surgery of some pieces. I’m working with my dental office to work out financing, as well as checking out loans from different banks. I did explore CareCredit, but they will not give me enough, and the interest rate would have me paying about 10-12k more than I originally owed anyways. Moving and bike accident things (two full weeks off work as well as repair) has essentially drained my savings to the point where it’s not going to be much use. 

To those who have maybe heard a different story about my teeth, especially here recently, I can only ask your forgiveness. Much like Bilbo Baggins, I was very embarrassed and ashamed at how this came about, and owning up to it was more strength than I could muster at the time. Blaming my bike accident was only ever an excuse and I’m sorry. 

So that’s that. I hope you can help, even $1 would mean the world to me, and be more than I deserve. If you can’t, I totally understand, money is so so tough right now for so many. Please please please share this though.

Total breakdown of costs:

AO4/6: $19,500 (all inclusive: sedation, surgery, temporary bridge, full permanent bridge, follow ups)

Time off work (2-weeks): $1800

GFM %: ~$700

$22,000

If you’d like to donate directly to me: 

Venmo: Andrew-Jenkins-49

Cashapp: $theyofthefey

Please put something in the description that won’t cause either to flag for goods/services. Something like the emoji would be great so I can ensure funds are put away appropriately. 

If by chance y’all bless me with more funds than is necessary, any extra will also be in turn donated to other folx in a similar situation as I am, with particular regards to the LGBTQ community.