[9/15/23 update: I had recieved some funds prior to making a GFM. This money was deducted from the goal listed here and placed in savings. Thank you sincerely to everyone who's donated to me so far!]

Hey there, my name is Mal.

On september 6th, I felt pain and a strange swelling in my lower left jaw. It had escalated tremendously by the following morning, and I made an emergency trip to the dentist. An xray revealed a really bad root infection that was likely to spread to my other teeth and cause a plethora of health problems.

This was so stressful to hear, as I take such good care of my teeth. I don't know how this could have happened. An extraction was deemed necessary, and due to prior dental work I had when I was younger and the type of crowding going on in my mouth, a bone graft and implant was deemed necessary in order to prevent much more expensive problems further down the line.

In retrospect, I probably could have been fine with just the extraction and no implant. My insurance only covers preventative dental - which is maddening, because how was I supposed to prevent this? However, I felt extremely pressured at the time of surgery. The bill was $4000, and I had no way to pay for it. I was offered the option to finance the $4000 bill on carecredit, under the impression I'd have 24 month 0% financing as an option. It was only available for 6 month financing. Being late on even a single payment gets you charged 29.99% interest on the *entire purchase,) which means I'd need around $660 a month in cash laying around to not get charged another $1200 in interest.

At present while writing this and during the week that this all happened, I had just received news that my work was botching transferring me to a new location. My hours got reduced to part time the week prior, and my ability to earn commission has been cut dramatically. This has reduced my income for the month of September to 1/3rd what it has been previous months. I had only just started to build my savings back up.

I am currently looking for another job.

The money in my savings was only just enough to cover September bills and expenses plus part of November. I absolutely cannot afford this.

I need all the help I can get to get this paid off ASAP. I cannot afford to be ruined by this. So long as I can pay 1/6th of the bill early month by month I will be okay, but I hope with your support I can bury this thing and focus on rebuilding my life like I was prior to all this.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your help.