Help Fix Jae's Tooth!
Donation protected
I'm Jae and I need $1500 of the $2800 it's going to cost me for: an emergency surgical tooth extraction, a bone graft, a temporary "flipper tooth", and a front tooth implant!
I am scheduled to have my extraction by next week, Monday September 28, 2020, if not sooner due to the severity of my infection.
My Story:
Hi! You might know me, because I really only expect the people closest to me to ever see this. But if you don’t, my name is Jae! I’m 26 years old and I’ve been having one of the roughest months of my life, and I’d like you to donate to my GoFundMe so I can keep laughing about it and taking everything with good humor.
You see, that’s what I try to do when things really hurt, but this time what hurts is smiling!
**content warning: graphic depiction of infected gums below!**
This is what my gums look like as I post, so you can see I’m really in the middle of a true emergency. I've got two abscesses from a pretty serious failed root canal which caused the infection.
Let’s rewind about 20 years so you can get some backstory what’s going on.
Back when I was about 7 or 8, around this time of year, actually, I was very brave and went into a carnival haunted house all by myself! If you know me in person you know how little I am (I'm 4'8" if you've ever wondered and never asked), and well, imagine how littler I was THEN!
And I was very brave, because I love haunted houses! But there was a grown man who was very much Not Brave, and he decided to blast through the halls and shove everything and everyone out of his way. SMACK!
Yep. That was the sound I made as I went flying face-first into the wall. I navigated the rest of the house in the pitch black and came out to see he’d cracked what I now know to be tooth #7 right into a cute little vampire fang that would be what comes back to bite me.
My grandma did what any self-respecting parent does and took me to the dentist. But oh no! We’re not very well off. So off I go to the Medicaid dentist. And he puts a filling in it and just kind of leaves it like that.
Flash forward.
It’s October (again) of 2018. I’m in my last year of college, busy with a great internship and volunteering and coaxing my adopted feral cat into being a loving member of society treat by treat... and something starts to feel Not Right. “Okay, dentist time~!”
Turns out that filling? It’s been sitting right on top of my nerve the whole time, slowly killing it, and now I need a root canal and crown from a specialist. “$1450, please!”
Which I can’t afford, because I’m a broke college student! But I have a credit card and a wonderful, caring person very close to me who offers to give me $500 to make up for the rest of the money I don’t have. And root canals have a very high success rate, right? So it’ll last and at least I have a tooth for graduation! Very big smile there, nice crown!
Now it’s two years later, again, almost to the day. Almost like this tooth is cursed. And again… “Something’s not right” So I go back to the dentist, who sends me back to the endodontist, who pulls up my new x-ray and my tooth… is chopped in half, right through the middle. The infection healed and the bone grew back but “Bad luck” he says, I must have bit into something that fractured my root “Beyond Repair.”
(disclaimer: not my x-ray but it looked pretty similar to this one)
I zone out. He keeps talking about how I’m going to need an implant because the rest of my teeth wouldn’t support a bridge (the cheaper alternative) and they don’t like to shave down healthy teeth for the crows they need, anyways. Leaving it empty will cause permanent irreversible bone loss. Everything’s still gray. I think about my very empty bank account.
I just recently lost that beloved cat Callie to very sudden, very aggressive cancer and her emergency vet and euthanasia bills were over $800 and wiped out the good amount of savings I had. I’ve already had to ask my landlord for a short extension on my part of the rent this month to pay for this appointment. I just started a new job at a small non-profit and haven’t even gotten my first full paycheck yet, let alone become eligible for benefits. The dental plan I have doesn’t cover things like dentures or implants and if I pull the tooth now, almost no insurance ever will.
I’m stuck. I’m screwed… or well, can’t afford a ($2500 dental implant) screw, as the case may be.
My absolute biggest fear of all time has come true. I have a large history of tooth loss in my family, and a history of being a stubborn child with undiagnosed depression and a soda addiction, who truthfully didn’t have the best oral hygiene. I have nightmares on a regular basis where all my teeth fall out. But I’ve been pretty good about my teeth since I’ve been an adult. They’re not white, or straight, and I could never afford braces, but I don’t have any other problems beyond the ones from this single tooth. I haven’t even needed a filling since I was a kid!
I know myself, and while I could probably live with not having a front tooth, it would devastate me. I already have so little confidence in my teeth that even going back to childhood there’s rarely a picture of me showing them. Now I’m also going to have to hide whenever I eat because the flimsy temporary ($500?!) flipper tooth that covers the gap can’t be worn while you eat?
So I’m asking, and if you know me, you know it’s VERY hard for me to do. Will you please help support me raise the $1500 I still need to get a dental implant so I can go back to having a normal life? I don’t have anyone else in my life to rely on besides the kindness of my friends and strangers.
Even a dollar would honestly help me, but if you can't help, please share!
I am scheduled to have my extraction by next week, Monday September 28, 2020, if not sooner due to the severity of my infection.
My Story:
Hi! You might know me, because I really only expect the people closest to me to ever see this. But if you don’t, my name is Jae! I’m 26 years old and I’ve been having one of the roughest months of my life, and I’d like you to donate to my GoFundMe so I can keep laughing about it and taking everything with good humor.
You see, that’s what I try to do when things really hurt, but this time what hurts is smiling!
**content warning: graphic depiction of infected gums below!**
This is what my gums look like as I post, so you can see I’m really in the middle of a true emergency. I've got two abscesses from a pretty serious failed root canal which caused the infection.
Let’s rewind about 20 years so you can get some backstory what’s going on.
Back when I was about 7 or 8, around this time of year, actually, I was very brave and went into a carnival haunted house all by myself! If you know me in person you know how little I am (I'm 4'8" if you've ever wondered and never asked), and well, imagine how littler I was THEN!
And I was very brave, because I love haunted houses! But there was a grown man who was very much Not Brave, and he decided to blast through the halls and shove everything and everyone out of his way. SMACK!
Yep. That was the sound I made as I went flying face-first into the wall. I navigated the rest of the house in the pitch black and came out to see he’d cracked what I now know to be tooth #7 right into a cute little vampire fang that would be what comes back to bite me.
My grandma did what any self-respecting parent does and took me to the dentist. But oh no! We’re not very well off. So off I go to the Medicaid dentist. And he puts a filling in it and just kind of leaves it like that.
Flash forward.
It’s October (again) of 2018. I’m in my last year of college, busy with a great internship and volunteering and coaxing my adopted feral cat into being a loving member of society treat by treat... and something starts to feel Not Right. “Okay, dentist time~!”
Turns out that filling? It’s been sitting right on top of my nerve the whole time, slowly killing it, and now I need a root canal and crown from a specialist. “$1450, please!”
Which I can’t afford, because I’m a broke college student! But I have a credit card and a wonderful, caring person very close to me who offers to give me $500 to make up for the rest of the money I don’t have. And root canals have a very high success rate, right? So it’ll last and at least I have a tooth for graduation! Very big smile there, nice crown!
Now it’s two years later, again, almost to the day. Almost like this tooth is cursed. And again… “Something’s not right” So I go back to the dentist, who sends me back to the endodontist, who pulls up my new x-ray and my tooth… is chopped in half, right through the middle. The infection healed and the bone grew back but “Bad luck” he says, I must have bit into something that fractured my root “Beyond Repair.”
(disclaimer: not my x-ray but it looked pretty similar to this one)
I zone out. He keeps talking about how I’m going to need an implant because the rest of my teeth wouldn’t support a bridge (the cheaper alternative) and they don’t like to shave down healthy teeth for the crows they need, anyways. Leaving it empty will cause permanent irreversible bone loss. Everything’s still gray. I think about my very empty bank account.
I just recently lost that beloved cat Callie to very sudden, very aggressive cancer and her emergency vet and euthanasia bills were over $800 and wiped out the good amount of savings I had. I’ve already had to ask my landlord for a short extension on my part of the rent this month to pay for this appointment. I just started a new job at a small non-profit and haven’t even gotten my first full paycheck yet, let alone become eligible for benefits. The dental plan I have doesn’t cover things like dentures or implants and if I pull the tooth now, almost no insurance ever will.
I’m stuck. I’m screwed… or well, can’t afford a ($2500 dental implant) screw, as the case may be.
My absolute biggest fear of all time has come true. I have a large history of tooth loss in my family, and a history of being a stubborn child with undiagnosed depression and a soda addiction, who truthfully didn’t have the best oral hygiene. I have nightmares on a regular basis where all my teeth fall out. But I’ve been pretty good about my teeth since I’ve been an adult. They’re not white, or straight, and I could never afford braces, but I don’t have any other problems beyond the ones from this single tooth. I haven’t even needed a filling since I was a kid!
I know myself, and while I could probably live with not having a front tooth, it would devastate me. I already have so little confidence in my teeth that even going back to childhood there’s rarely a picture of me showing them. Now I’m also going to have to hide whenever I eat because the flimsy temporary ($500?!) flipper tooth that covers the gap can’t be worn while you eat?
So I’m asking, and if you know me, you know it’s VERY hard for me to do. Will you please help support me raise the $1500 I still need to get a dental implant so I can go back to having a normal life? I don’t have anyone else in my life to rely on besides the kindness of my friends and strangers.
Even a dollar would honestly help me, but if you can't help, please share!
Organizer
Jae Earing
Organizer
Tampa, FL
