Hi friends,

I need help smiling again, having a functioning mouth, and recovering.

Some of you know, some of you do not but I have been going through a hard time with urgent dental procedures since October of last year and just had surgery in mid June. It’s taken me since April to ask, I am someone who likes to handle their issues on their own, but I recognize that I cannot do this on my own. I do not have the resource of family to ask for support. My extended family lives in Nicaragua, and my siblings & extended family usually need my help financially.

So far, I have had 5 teeth extracted, 3 were wisdom teeth which needed to come out, but 2 were main molars on my right bottom side that dentists could not save because they were too damaged by wisdom teeth that came in. I need these to chew and have a fully operating mouth. If I do not get implants I risk losing my top teeth because they can shift or super-erupt. I also risk bone loss or disfigurement to my jaw. Worst of all, I won't be able to eat or speak properly. I’m young, so a denture is not advised. Right now I’m pretty gummy on that bottom right side and lisping a little bit lol.

On top of this, I had an emergency root canal on my left side that is in need of a crown and before I can get a crown on that tooth I need surgery to shave down the bone. The molar next to that one, the one impacted by the wisdom tooth directly, is going to be sensitive for a while due to bone resorption.

I made a diagram to explain what’s going on.

Luckily, I am being treated at a nearby clinic that is affordable but they are cash-up-front before they do any work and I have a limited time frame with my assigned student doctor.

In total I need help with: wisdom tooth extraction surgery + extraction, RCT treatment, jaw surgery, crown, implants + sedation for those.

This has all been hard on my mentaI health. I have cried a lot about losing two teeth because it is very much tied to how depressed I became after my mom died. The first molar I had taken out was right after she passed and I just shoved all of it down to get through. I’ve been just trying to get by and figure things out as I go since then, like many 20 somethings, but my body is now asking me to slow down. Going to the dentist alone and really confronting how alone I am physically has been hard. I know I have friends, I know I am loved, but the reality of everything I’ve had to carry and how I just kind of bury it is not easy to confront.

My student doctor has been incredibly empathetic with me and told me that my teeth are reflecting back to me that I take care of others, but I don’t ask, and now I have to in order to heal. Healing takes a lot of internal strength and external strength takes vulnerability.

As of now I’m still job hunting after leaving a workplace after lasting as long as I could and if you know how hard L.A. has been hit this year, resources are strained.

Despite all of this, I have kept my spirits high and have been producing art work and redistributing funds from prints with the time I’ve been recovering from surgery. It is critical to me that I keep working on art right now and writing about things that matter. My path as an artist and person are important.

It is a firm value that I could be any person, anywhere, who just needs something, and that we only have each other. Anything I have had in abundance, I give back to any person I have ever seen in need. Please know anything you do helps and also, that I fully plan on healing and continuing to pour into others when I have more resources.

I thank anyone who can redistribute right now and extend my gratitude to friends who are basically family to me who have been so encouraging & loving during a hard time.

Lots of love,

-Belen