Help Brad Collier Recover from Dental Debacle

Hi there! My name is Brad Collier. You might know me from my small hometown of Floyd, VA, or maybe from my many years of performing at renaissance festivals and other themed events. You might have met me out at Floydfest, where I organize buskers and run daily jam sessions, or at the Artisan Market downtown. Heck, you might no even know me yet.

I’ve been trying not to resort to GoFundMe or other fundraising sites, but I seem to find myself with no better option at the moment. A little over a year ago, I let myself be pressured by a dentist at an Aspen Dental franchise to undergo a very expensive gum and bone treatment, before he would address the cavity which had brought me to his office. I was told that a filling would only be temporary, and I’d need an implant soon. Unfortunately, according to him, an implant wouldn’t work for me without undergoing the expensive bone treatment first. After getting the treatment, I returned to finally get my tooth taken care of, whereupon he casually numbed the wrong side of my mouth, and proceeded to give me the worst, most ineffective filling of all time. By the time he was done with me, I was nearly $5000 in debt, with a tooth that wasn’t really any better, leading to a year of discomfort and continuing decay.

Fast forward a year, and my new dentist is cussing under his breath at what the Aspen guy had done. He’s removed one other tooth, making way for a potential implant, and has done stage 1 of a 2 stage root canal on the tooth that was so poorly treated at Aspen Dental. The old filling was practically non-existent, but the fact that a root canal was still an option meant that the Aspen guy had totally misinformed me. I’m incredibly relieved to have found a dentist that I trust, but this whole experience has wrecked my finances, and set my overall dental care back by a year. Any help that you might be able to give would be appreciated more than I could ever adequately express. In just over a year, I’ve dropped about $7000 in dental care, when what I really needed was a decent $400-500 filling. I’m hoping to recoup some of the money that I threw away at Aspen Dental, but more immediately, I need to go back and have stage 2 of this root canal finished up and paid in full. Thanks for taking the time to read about my situation. I hope you are all healthy and doing as well as one possibly can. And kids……brush and floss your teeth. Seriously.