Help Restore a Smile: Urgent Dental Aid Needed

Urgent dental assistance needed….

Me asking for help from friends and strangers is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I have always had a mindset that if I didn’t have the money to get something, I didn’t get it. This is one of those situations where I don’t have a choice but to ask for help. This is so embarrassing for me to open up about and talk about, but here it goes. I am unfortunately losing my teeth. I have done everything right. I brush, I’m addicted to flossing, but nothing I do has made a difference in my outcome. A few years ago, my teeth started breaking. I’d go have them fixed, and within 6 months, the work would break. So I was going back and forth with the same teeth getting them fixed, and the work would not stay. My last filling fell out 3 months after having it fixed. Since all this happened, I had additional teeth just break. One of my canines broke halfway off, one of my lower molars split and fell out when I was flossing. I have another molar that has split and broken in half and has come out with the root still in my jaw. Just the past two nights, two more pieces of my front tooth fell out along with another piece I believe from a molar. I’ve had extremely sensitive teeth for years. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been able to eat or drink anything cold or have anything hot. Everything has to be room temperature, or it sends shock waves through my face. I really don’t know what has caused this to happen. I haven’t been able to get any clear answers. The dentist has said that I have a mixture of periodontal disease and soft teeth. I have my thoughts, and I’m going to give them. This is going to be extra hard for me to open up about, and I’m going to be crying as I tell everyone about this. I was born with dislocated hips that went undiagnosed until I was 6 years old. By that time, my hips had made their own joints, and they were where they were going to be. If found when I was a baby, my legs could have been pulled into place, and I would have been put in a baby body cast, and I would be okay today. Instead, right after my 7th birthday, I started having surgeries to accommodate the difference in length of my legs (I walked like a penguin and still do). The doctor went in each side and removed portions of my femur to attempt to get me aligned. Each side was done separately, and I was body casted for each surgery. I learned how to walk again after each surgery. When I was in middle school, they went back in for separate surgeries to remove the bolts and screws that were placed when I was little. These surgeries were pretty much a chance to give me a normal life. The outcome was unknown of how I would be in the future. There were no medical studies here in the US for my condition. The surgeries got me through till about 2007, and I started having pain in my back and hips. My back couldn’t hold up to my hip problems. My lower back was deteriorating all along. I started having to have injections and nerve burning to try to keep my back from being in so much pain, but as far as my back is concerned, nothing has helped. To this day, I’m in pain daily. My left hip finally got to the point where I could barely walk, and the pain was unbearable, so it was replaced in 2011. The surgery was successful. I could move my leg in ways it had never moved before. The same thing happened with my right hip; it was replaced in 2018. This surgery was not successful. I was left worse than I was before the surgery. I have very limited motion, and I’m still in pain in my right hip. I’m going to eventually have to have both hips replaced again because replacements don’t last but for so long. With my age, I’m doing everything I can to take it easy on them to make them last as long as possible. With the damage to my hips and back, my knees are also going. I’m in need of a knee replacement on my left knee now. I’m bone on bone, and my leg is starting to bow inward. I’m going to be the bionic woman before this is all over with. Lol. My teeth deterioration, I believe, has been caused by the medications that have kept me on my feet and have been treating my pain for the past 20 years. Every day is a struggle. I never know if I’m going to be able to walk or not. Sometimes the pain is unbearable, and I just cry all day. Some days I’m in pain, but it’s bearable, but it’s always there. I can’t walk or stand for long periods or even sit for long periods. I make myself get up and do what I can because I believe if you lay down, you stay down. I fake being okay. I don’t know if my family and friends can see that I’m faking being okay, but this is the best I can do. Okay, back to my dental situation. I don’t want to lose my teeth, but after seeing dentist after dentist, I have found one that took the time to listen to my medical history and consider my medical future. We both decided that this is my best option. Each time I have to have a surgery, I have to get dental clearance. I will run into problems every time if I go the cap, crown, root canal route. It will all fall out, so I would end up with a never-ending problem that costs way more than having my teeth removed. I’m currently living in fear along with the horrible jaw, headaches, and nerve pain in my face. Each time I go to the dentist, I have to take antibiotics to prevent infection. A couple of weeks ago, I had an infection in my jaw and was on antibiotics, scared that the infection would go to my hips and cause me a hip infection and another hip replacement or even the chance of losing my legs. I’m actually scared of what could happen if I don’t get my mouth fixed ASAP. Wondering if the pain is infectious or just pain until my jaw swells up like a squirrel packing for the winter like last time I knew it was infected. I’m asking for help because I simply can’t afford it. Dental work isn’t like a doctor visit. You have to pay before or at the time of service. I don’t make enough money to get a loan. My total income is the equivalent to a full-time minimum wage employee a month. I don’t live above my means. I only make enough to cover living expenses and nothing more. I simply don’t have the money to pay back a loan or even acquire one in good faith. I’m actually still paying for all the dental work that has fallen out already. I’ve been on my own for the past 12 years trying my best to make it in this world. If anyone can help me, I would be so very grateful to anyone for any amount of help. If there’s an oral surgeon out there that is willing to help in doing my extractions, I’m all in. I’m going to attach photos of my dental quote from my insurance and also photos of me as a kid to show that I’m not pulling any legs. Heck, I’ll even give the name of my dental office and phone number; you can call them and see that I’m legit. I’ll answer any questions anyone may have. If anyone does help me, I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough. I will never forget the help you give me because I will know, anonymous or known, you have given me peace from the fear I live in and have given me back my smile.