Erin's Bite Repair: Prevent Tooth Loss

Hello, my name is Erin Kraten. I am starting a Go Fund Me to help pay for braces that I need to repair my bite alignment. In 2019 during a medical emergency I was being transferred from Cookeville Regional Hospital to Trust Point Hospital in Murfreesboro, TN and one of the bags of belongings I had with me was accidentally thrown away which contained my professionally made night guard in it. While in the hospital a temporary night guard was obtained for me because I grind my teeth and have done so my entire life. I wore this temporary night guard for about a year afterward because I could not afford to replace my professionally made night guard. This caused my bite to move out of alignment and my teeth shifted to such an extent that they only meet at the very back molars. I now have what is called an open bite. This interferes extremely with my ability to eat in such a way that I have to swallow most of my food whole. This negatively impacts my life very much.

John Wesley Halliburton, my dentist, Dr. Wheeler, my orthodontist, and Samuel J. McKenna, Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN have all told me that this will lead to me losing all of my teeth if I don’t fix it now. My back four molars are already wearing away due to having taken the full pressure of my bite on their own for the past five years and I will eventually loose them and those in front of them next, and it will continue on from there.

I need to raise $6,700 for my braces by August 2025 or the price of them will increase. I live on a fixed income and can not afford to pay for them outright or finance them on my own. I normally would never ask others for money, but this is a dire situation that I am facing that I struggle with daily as it is so difficult for me to eat now and I want to keep my teeth in the future.

If there is any way that you can assist me financially, it would mean saving my teeth. If you can not help by donating you can help me by sharing my Go Fund Me campaign with your social contacts as far and wide as you can. I would appreciate this more than I can express in words. Thank you for reading my story and considering supporting my cause.

*The photo shows my teeth closed all the way.