My Dental Rollercoaster Unfortunately, for at least a decade, I had a lot of acid reflux. The medical name is severe GERD. Basically, everything I ate and drank came up multiple times. As you can imagine, I had a lot of teeth rotting out of my mouth. I had a lot of tooth pain, and a lot of my previous friends/mentors advised me to go to the dentist. I don’t recall how I chose a dentist but I found one in 2017. This dentist was in San Antonio, Texas. The dentist office was called Nautical dental. The one benefit to Nautical was that they can IV Sedate me, so I didn’t have to be awake through all of this. They told me that they were going to have to pull all my teeth out and use dentures. This was because I had a lot of tooth infections Unfortunately, this was going to cost me thousands of dollars. Thankfully, I had a previous family member that helped me out a lot financially. After my teeth were all pulled, they had a denture mold that they used to measure my gums. They couldn’t do this when I was awake because I have a huge gag reflex. My mom said that she could hear me from the waiting room gagging and moaning. Even though I was sedated. That is crazy to me. They told me after the surgery that I must keep the top denture in my mouth and bite down on gauze. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wear the bottom dentures because my gums still had to heal. Again, I have a severe gag reflux. They keep the dentures very big and bulky on purpose to provide a lot of suction so the dentures would stay in. I was in horrible pain after the surgery and didn’t want to put anything in my mouth, especially the dentures. My parents thought they were helping me out by holding me accountable to keep my dentures in. I know they love me which is why they did it, but it still really hurt. A month after the surgery, I believe that I went back in for a check up and got my dentures resized. This was in May of 2017. I was planning on moving from San Antonio to Bellevue, Washington because I got a job at Sambica, which is an amazing summer camp. I was freaking out because I couldn’t keep my dentures in my mouth and I was going to whole new surroundings. I also couldn’t talk with my dentures in. I just was so insecure about not having teeth in my mouth, or about having teeth falling out in front of people. Over the year, I tried different adhesives to hold my dentures in my mouth. It was an on and off battle. Most of the adhesives felt like I was putting Elmer’s glue in my mouth. Then when my dentures fell out, it felt so sticky to my gums and I had to try to wash it off. I could barely eat anything without my dentures falling out. Whenever I had the courage to, which wasn’t a lot, I tried putting my dentures in. Then when they fell out, I just kept them out and gummed all my food. I had to tear little pieces apart of my food and try to chew them. Thankfully over that summer and year spent in Washington, no one gave me a hard time about not having any teeth. A lot of the staff supported me. Fast forwarding to 2019, I really wasn’t wearing my dentures that much. I just couldn’t hold them in. I tried a lot of adhesives and Fixodent’s that was either too annoying or just wouldn’t stick in. I was able to eat some soft foods with them in but not steak, a sandwich, or anything that was fun. In January of 2019, I found a denture implant place that literally said affordable denture implants. At this point, my family moved from San Antonio to Houston. I moved back with them from sambica for less than a year. This was because I tore my ACL, so they had to do an ACL surgery on me which was about a six-month healing process. The staff at that location were so kind to me. They assured me that I wouldn’t have any problems with eating after the implants were put in. I had saved up a little bit of money from sambica, so I put down a deposit, and then was on a payment plan every month. It was like a dental credit card. They explained that a lot of people have the same issue as I did. A lot of people aren’t able to keep there dentures in all day. They especially fall out when eating steak or a hamburger or something similar. They were able to take me in on the same day as my consultation so I didn’t really have any time to think about it. They sent me to a pharmacy right across the street to pick up some medicine that was supposed to relax me during the surgery. I was supposed to be in a twilight sleep. Unfortunately, because I had severe GERD, I don’t think the medication mostly worked. I’m pretty sure I remember a lot of it. The procedure was very painful. They put eight metal bars inside of my gums. Four on the top and four on the bottom. They said that I was going to need to come back in about six months to finalize my implants. Then I would be able to eat like a normal person. I then recently got a job at cannon beach conference center about that time. I was planning to go there in March. One month after my dental surgery. I didn’t have as much anxiety as when I moved to Sambica though. I had a few personal encounters with God that helped me through it. I was just eating as I normally would. Tearing pieces off of my food and gumming it. Thankfully, people at the conference center were also very loving and didn’t care how I ate. It was a great first few months in Oregon, but then I traveled back to Houston in July. My sister was having a kid around this time. So I got to finish my dental implants, and see my ne nephew. I was still very anxious that month before I went back home. I was, and still am terrified of the dentist. Thankfully all the CBCC staff prayed with me right before I went to Texas and I felt at peace about it, but still very nervous at the same time. During the procedure, my brother’s fiancé went with me. I think I took the same medication as I did before. It was bad but not as bad as the first time. The only thing they had to do this time was drill in holes on those metal bars, and put in a screw on each bar. This was so I can snap my dentures on and off every day. After the procedure, my gums were still very annoyed. I found out that these implants move the teeth a little bit up and down every time I bite down. It’s still a weird feeling. Apparently, these implants are like trying to find a car part to a 1996 charger. These implants are either made in Texas, Virginia, or Europe. When I got back to Oregon a couple weeks later, I still didn’t like the way my gums felt. I got slightly used to my teeth though. The problem is that every time I eat, I get food stuck between my gums and my dentures. My dentures from august to December didn’t fit right. They were rocking a lot more back and forth then they should be. Labor Day weekend, in the Safeway parking lot, I had two screws come out. I lost one of them. Thankfully I had a friend, that had a friend in Florida that worked at the same dentist company that did my implants. He sent a screw to a dentist in Portland that was able to put these two screws in. He numbed my gums, drilled two holes, and put the screws in. Thankfully, this dentist didn’t charge me anything to put the screws in. Between the time the screws fell out and the time that I found this friend in Florida and the time I was able to have this screw put in was probably about a month. It was a very frustrating and terrible month. Once I got the screws put in, I did feel better. I was able to eat again. Some time after though, the same thing happened another screw fell out. Thankfully, I did have that screw after it fell out. I found a dentist in seaside that was able to drill a hole and put the screw back in. All these screws fell out because food got between my gums and my dentures. At about Christmas time in 2019, I went to visit my family in Texas. They moved from Houston to Dallas. Thankfully there were a few dentist offices in Dallas that was the same company that put my implants in. The dentist office was able to adjust my dentures so they were able to fit better.
Now I’m becoming a patient at clear choice in Portland Oregon. They’re going to provide me with fixed dentures so food can’t get between my gums. I’m praying that this will be a permanent solution, but something has to be done soon. Unfortunately Oregon health plan won’t cover anything for dental related. 
If you can support me in this, that would be awesome. It doesn’t matter if it’s money, mental, or emotional support, but especially prayer. Please call me if you have any questions. Thank you very much in advance.
https://gofund.me/f2ee7731